500 People in Houston Have Volunteered to Help

I find that an amazingly beautiful thing to wake up to this morning.

People are giving money.. I'm making a donation this morning. I'm a single mother with bills to pay and expected on the reference desk in about an hour. I can't go help. Writing and giving is pretty much all I can do from here. But, to here people living there are helping.. giving time and energy is beautiful and it's a large number and I am imagine over the Labor Day Weekend that number will grow. And....it is NEEDED.

The Red Cross and other organizations work on volunteer basis on a very basic level.

My son asked me the other day how it works. The one who lives on his own in Miami Shores and works at Barnes and Noble. Asked me a bunch of questions.. thought maybe it was like a draft. You sign up and they send you somewhere or if you sign up you have to go. Told him nope.. you sign up, register.. call them and if you can help they will place you somwhere. Told him if a storm comes he can offer to stay in a shelter somewhere or afterwards. He didn't know.
It is one of those organizations that most of us know is there but we don't know how it works.

My best friend Sharon always wanted to work with them but she too is a single mother and it does tie you down and your priorities are set so.. it is not so easy to pick up and go somewhere.

I have mixed feelings on the role the media is playing. On one level there is a bit too much hype and you can tip toe back and forth from a pro-liberal bias to a support your country and "why are those people rioting" sort of mentality. It's understated but if you watch CNN.. which to me shows more information ..to MSNBC which has shown more pain and suffering and desperation to FOX which has shown more scary scenes played over and over of looting and chaos.

I have seen the same kid pile things into his basket at the Walmart over and over and over on Fox. I have seen the same young mother walk through flood waters on MSNBC holding her small young child in her arms.

Is it overkill?

Yes, no.. maybe.

But.. if the overkill and melodramatic media plays it up then more people will donate money and bottom line that is good. Because... sorry to say this but the old adage is true..money makes the world go round. And, faith and charity help a lot.

So... this Labor Day Weekend instead of complaining how much your gas will cost and how you won't be able to take a long 3 day vacation somewhere. Take the money you would have spent and give it to the Red Cross ... or another organization. If you live near Houston or San Antonio.. drive down..offer and so you won't spend the weekend in Galveston or along the Gulf somewhere. If you can't make it to the Biloxi-Gulfport area to visit your favorite casino.. think on driving down and offering to help the Red Cross operation there. If you live somewhere else.. stay home, bond with your family..explain to your kids about the fragilty of life and how it can collapse and how you need to be strong and how be proactive incase a hurricane comes to your shores next week or the earth opens up and shakes or a nearby Volacano near your house in Seattle spews ashes again. Tell your kids how much you love them, or your parents or your friends... or better yet may you have someone to hold you tight tonight and tell them you love them. Make a back yard BBQ and realize how hot it is here..there ... everywhere.

Autumn is coming... Winter...

The days go swiftly by, season by season. This is our season to grieve.. to give.. to so.

Tomorrow will be another day. I promise. Scarlette was right.. tomorrow is always another day.

Today...do what you can and tomorrow.. remember they will still need when the live coverage gives way to other stories.. other events.. other unfolding tragedies.

And... tropically speaking... watch the wave off of Africa. In about five days time it most likely will be affecting the Greater or Lesser Antilles as a strong hurricane. From there..where it goes.. nobody knows for sure.

Have to take the chicken out of the oven and get out of here.

One of my youngest children turned 16 yesterday... time moves swiftly on. And, sometimes not swiftly enough.

Bobbi
Good Shabbos if I don't say it later.. Thank God It's Friday.