Water, Water, Everywhere

It rained very hard here last night, and I didn't get any sleep. Now, we live in a fairly land-locked area, on top of a hill in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where when the hurricane season is over, we have little to worry about in terms of flooding, so I wasn't afraid for our lives in any way shape or form. (Well, we could've still had a tornado but, well, let's not think about that...)

What I was thinking about in my fitful sleep was all of the victims of last December's tsunami in South Asia and now the mudslides in California. I also thought of the hurricanes that devasted Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and even Western North Carolina. (Ironically, a Pensacola resident fleeing Hurricane Ivan in the Gulf perished in Ivan flooding while staying with relatives in N.C.) (Is that "irony"? I forget sometimes...) (I'm a dog with only Basic Obedience training so forgive me.)

My moms have prepared an Emergency Box and accompanying Emergency Plan in case we lose power or need to evacuate. (I don't know if they made plans for me specifically. I'm a little concerned about this.) It's hard to know when one has crossed the fine line between "well-prepared" and "crazy" (I was trying to think of a better word: "fatalist" or "pessimist" or "alarmist", but "crazy" works...). We didn't stock up on the suggested duct tape, but we did have some lyiing around to put in the box. (I suppose they didn't want to be the ones who actually bought duct tape nor the ones who didn't have it when it turns out to be useful after all?) But where was I...

You see, I LOVE water. When we go down to the river, I like to just sit down in it and feel the current push by me. I'm not much of a swimmer, but I love the feel of it under my coat, the taste of it on my tongue (when mom doesn't stop me from drinking it!), the sound of it while I splash in and out of it and when I shake it all off. Both of my Moms grew up around water - Momma C on the Cheasapeake Bay in Southern Maryland and Momma B on the Gulf of Mexico in Pensacola. When we vacation, we had better be near a stream, river, bay, ocean, or ice floe.

But water can also be so devastating. Cars floating away after trying to cross a flooded road. The haunting image of a man losing the grip of his wife or a child in a tidal wave and watching her float away forever...

Water is life. It carries life, it continues life, it takes life. It is gentle, it is powerful. It deserves respect.

And yet we taunt it. We waste it. We forget its power and drunk-drive pleasure boats recklessly through it. We pour chemicals into it. We kill the life within it.

That has to change.

Many of the poor souls who lost their lives in last year's disasters made their livelihoods by the sea, humble fishermen like the original followers of Christ, perhaps why all those folks were able to open up those "stingy" wallets.

There has been a phenomenal outpouring of donations for the victims of the tsunami. Many of the affected lands were already plagued by war and poverty to begin with, so hopefully even in this tragedy, newly-gained attention, particularly Western, will still be trained to the region for many years to come. With all the horrible things war and disaster bring, an odd 'positive' bi-product is the eventual curiosity of the lay westerner who would have only known where Banda Acheh was if they filmed a "Survivor" season there. (Not that I could've located it quickly on a map. But I knew, at least, where Sumatra was. And, again, I'm a dog.) But now, school children have been closely examining the dusty maps in their classrooms. With all the news lately, they can now perhaps locate the Indian Ocean, the Hindu Kush, Baghdad, The West Bank... I only wish there was a better way.

As for the donations, I have now considered giving up a month of premium dog food to donate to the International Fund for Animal Welfare . At first, I thought my moms would think this was frivolous because even in their love for me, they may value human lives over those of my fellow four-legged creatures. But I think they will understand that helping them does in turn help the people. My donation to the IFAW would pay for animal treatment and vaccinations in tsunami-affected regions, and "dispensing vaccinations to livestock and pets in order to control the spread of disease is crucial to avoid further tragedy and loss of human life." (From the IFAW website)

So I'll start begging for checks instead of treats now. A career in development might be in store for me yet.