PARADISE LOST

It’s only beginning. I know this. I don’t know (no one knows) how to deal with the long-term – the likelihood that a substantial part of Louisiana will physically disappear, and with it, the culture, industry, wildlife . . . no, I can’t deal with this.

But, daily, I “deal” with people who are immediately impacted – the real victims in this awful disaster. The people who won’t be able to come back or rebuild because the land and waters they live and work on have been taken away. I watch CNN and MSNBC, but rarely do their reports provide more than an underwater view of the oil “spill” – the rest is redundancy.

And, in our frenetic response to the oil, we’ve all but forgotten about the individuals who were on the rig, and their families. The dead and permanently damaged humans who were on the front line - the first tier of those impacted by this “incident.”

Tonight my husband (of 30 years) and I spoke briefly about the need for mental health/grief counseling – including counseling for the counselors. My beloved observed that, since the Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Disaster, "you've been drinking more, and you've been angry." My response was “I haven’t had time to drink more, but I sure as hell am angry.”

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is, in the long run, the best contribution we can make to our fellow men.

- Rollo May