Sunday

I am not well, yet today may be the most restful day I’ve had in a long time.

I am without children.

Thomas is asleep and Bryan took Ruthie to church, so here I sit, in bed, in my pajamas, and it’s nearly 11am. I haven’t done this since Ruthie was an immobile baby.

I feel decadent.

I finally turned on the news yesterday to watch the coverage of the New Orleans tragedy. I have to admit I was keeping my distance all week. I followed the newspaper headlines, but that’s about it. After obsessively watching the news coverage of the Tsunami disaster earlier in the year, I wasn’t sure I could handle the same thing again.

What strikes me the most is the thousands of people being evacuated to far away cities. These are people who began with very little, and will likely have nothing when this is over. Their homes are destroyed, some are separated from their families, and now they are in a strange city. Statistics say refugees rarely return to the areas they have fled, so these generous cities have just welcomed thousands of people into their population.

I cannot even fathom an entire city destroyed.

I cannot even fathom the impact of thousands of impoverished refugees upon the cities who have taken them in.

The emotional and sociological toll this will take on our nation is yet to be seen. There is talk of racism. There is talk of classism. There will be post-traumatic stress and economic impact.

Yet I can’t help but think we will all somehow forget once the news cycles away from this. I pray I am wrong.