The Little Things
After a couple of weeks without power, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many in the New Jersey and New York areas were affected by flood damage and other related damages. Even those businesses without outright damage saw loss of revenues for extended periods of time thereafter as distracted consumers were not yet back in the normal swing of life, as they know it.
Suddenly, every little thing we took for granted comes to the forefront. Take electricity, for example. It is a relatively modern innovation in mankind’s history, yet we are so amazingly dependent on it, we don’t realize how we appear not to be able to function without it. I was unable to call my family because my cell phone was drained of power and the Internet phone at home that doesn’t work in a power outage! We can’t pump gas in our car without power in the gas stations and were effectively marooned at home.
Neighbors whose homes were ravaged by flood damage became the homeless overnight. Having a roof over our heads is often something people take for granted. While most of people’s paychecks go toward either rent or mortgage, it has never been more palpable when even when you have a roof over your head, without heat and power, that home is essentially unlivable in the freezing cold weather.
During this whole storm, an ex-colleague and friend of mine became violently ill and had to be admitted to the hospital. Each day he spends in the intensive care unit, friends and family are praying for his recovery, starting first with his ability to breathe on his own rather than relying on the respirator. We never consciously think about our breathing, but here, we suddenly become completely conscious about it.
As Thanksgiving is coming up upon us, it is a good time to reflect and be thankful for all that we have, including the little things that are in fact the building blocks of our lives.
Suddenly, every little thing we took for granted comes to the forefront. Take electricity, for example. It is a relatively modern innovation in mankind’s history, yet we are so amazingly dependent on it, we don’t realize how we appear not to be able to function without it. I was unable to call my family because my cell phone was drained of power and the Internet phone at home that doesn’t work in a power outage! We can’t pump gas in our car without power in the gas stations and were effectively marooned at home.
Neighbors whose homes were ravaged by flood damage became the homeless overnight. Having a roof over our heads is often something people take for granted. While most of people’s paychecks go toward either rent or mortgage, it has never been more palpable when even when you have a roof over your head, without heat and power, that home is essentially unlivable in the freezing cold weather.
During this whole storm, an ex-colleague and friend of mine became violently ill and had to be admitted to the hospital. Each day he spends in the intensive care unit, friends and family are praying for his recovery, starting first with his ability to breathe on his own rather than relying on the respirator. We never consciously think about our breathing, but here, we suddenly become completely conscious about it.
As Thanksgiving is coming up upon us, it is a good time to reflect and be thankful for all that we have, including the little things that are in fact the building blocks of our lives.
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