Learn When To Sway: Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy

World turned upside-down, roots coming to light

I haven't updated this blog in a good long while...so long, in fact, that I was actually embarrassed to go back to it. Like a cat who trips or accidentally walks into a wall, then acts like it meant to do it. "Oh, I had started this thing, but then it dropped off the map like so many things do..."

What set off my temporary absence from this blog was attending an industry convention in San Diego, which lasted almost an entire week and took another week to recover from. One way I coped with the long hours of that business trip was to drink massive amounts of coffee and take Tylenol PM for sleeping. Couldn't really even drink a lot of alcohol or go to parties -- it was a long haul, and I had to be on my "A" game.

What the last 4 months have looked like

When I got back, my diet and my commitment to this site was shot to hell. My schedule kept up its frantic pace, whilst new real-life horrors were blasted through the news media (see my article on "Zombie Fatigue") regarding mass shootings public killings and the like (a couple not that far away from where I work). Soon, I was preparing for another major industry convention, like the period of time between July and October was just one continuous caffeine-and-junk-food fuelled marathon.

And then Hurricane Sandy happened.

A couple weeks before one of the worst storms ever on record for the United States, I started majorly taking steps to get my life back on the healthy track. But Sandy was like an out-of-body experience, a horrifying wake-up call on so many issues:

Impermanence
The landscape of my environment was literally altered by the storm, trees uprooted through slabs of concrete, slamming into houses. 100-year-old trees chopped into logs, spraypainted with orange X's, and hauled away. Thousands of people losing their homes and personal belongings to floods or fire.

Our fragile ecosystem
One storm had set off a chain of events that led to millions without power, lines for gasoline, and a crippled transit system. One storm. How fragile our "worlds" are, how much we take for granted. Do we have the infrastructure to cope? What needs to be changed?

Lines for gas, post-Hurricane Sandy

What am I doing to make a difference?
Luckily, me and my husband never lost power and were reasonably OK (outside of being terrified for a day or two). But so many are still suffering. How do I help? How do I not get lulled into that false sense of security, that comforting sense of detachment from the suffering of others?

Where is my life going?
Shit, I could have died. A tree fell on a local couple who were just walking their dog; they were killed instantly. We could have lost everything. Another natural (or unnatural) disaster could happen on any day. Life is precious. What am I doing? How am I contributing to society and the generations after us? What unique talents am I using or not using? What is my family's plan? What am I putting off "for later"?

There is a relatively new tree outside my house planted by the Parks Department. It's a little bit bigger than the leafless, scrawny bunch of twigs it was a couple of years ago. But compare it to those grand century-old trees that dot my neighborhood: what is more majestic? What has the best chance of weathering the storm?

The little tree survived mostly intact; some of its sparse collection of Fall leaves still on its branches. Many of the little tree's "brothers and sisters," planted around the same time, stayed up as well. They survived because they were able to bend and adapt to the winds. Their branches were supple, and didn't snap under the pressure. They swayed and bowed according to the rhythm of the hurricane, in their little plots of still-fresh soil and mulch.

The big trees, on the other hand, were set in their ways, surrounded by concrete barriers that kept their roots covered. When the strong winds set upon them, they didn't sway -- they snapped! Crack! Splinters everywhere, roots upended, concrete flying. 100-year-old trees smashing into 100-year-old grand houses.

Fallen tree in Brooklyn, post-Sandy

 This was one of the most profound lessons I learned during Hurricane Sandy. I need to live my life like those supple trees. It doesn't even matter how old I am. I need to remember to adapt, to not let my roots be encased and boxed-up. I need to let my branches flow with the current, not stand stock-still stubborn until I get torn in two. I need to learn how to sway. I might look a little silly doing it, as if I'm attempting some sort of interpretative dance. But I'll be intact and weather the storm...and see the sunshine at the end of it:

First sunshine after Hurricane Sandy