[random][politics] And so we return...

...as we must. We return to harsh reality after a mostly blissful week spent on the North Oregon Coast with friends. After a day on the beach or in Seaside or Cannon Beach, we would return to our rented house and, after dinner, once the children were in bed, find ourselves at least momentarily sucked in to the images of death and horror and despair on CNN. We shook our heads in dismay, watching a city we'd all been to and loved fall apart at Nature's hand. We ranted in anger and disgust at the lack of response from the Feds. And as best we each could, we blotted those images out of our minds each day. We would leave that anger behind, and play on the beach and in the arcades, pretending that all was well. And still we would return to the glowing oracle in the living room, however briefly. And all of us wondered in our own way what this meant for the future for our nation. Is this what the end of Empire looks like? Did the Toltecs know their end was at hand? The Anasazi? The Khmer? Will New Orleans be our first ghost city, returned to the Delta from which she was carved? At this time, things are looking better than they were a couple of days ago, but still... I fear that this wound runs deeper than we realize. Than we can realize. And so we return. And we wait.