Amid all this Sandy-related suffering and tragedy, I couldn’t help but smile walking past the Empire State Building on my way to work at the Guideposts offices this morning. The hawkers were out on Fifth Avenue in their fluorescent green vests selling tickets to double-decker bus tours of Manhattan.
And people were lined up to sign on, mostly tourists, I assume.
Boy, the city keeps rolling, doesn’t it? Like a big wet dog, it’s shaking itself off and going about its business, hurricane or no hurricane.
Yet so many are suffering, from loss of power to loss of homes, and it doesn’t look like things are going to get much better anytime soon. The storm dealt a brutal blow to the Northeast and some people’s lives will never be the same.
But we’ve been here before—9/11, the blackout of ’03, Irene and several blizzards of the century. And we’ll get through this crisis as New Yorkers always do, indeed as Americans always do, with hope and optimism and community, and with an unshakeable faith that we are watched over and protected, that the worse that we can imagine is nothing compared to the good that God brings. We are going to struggle a while here in the East but we will not struggle alone.
For one thing, I know you will help us. Please say a prayer for all the folks who are suffering in the wake of Sandy. Meanwhile I plan to wave and smile at the bus tours as they roll by. They’re going to get a good look at what a real live New York City traffic jam looks like. I bet they’ll have some stories when they get home.
