(no subject)
it's almost like a year was long enough for me to get used to it all. I mean, not that it something anyone should be used to. But it's almost like the "old" New Orleans was a place I visited...not the place I grew up in. That's probably the saddest part about it being a year later. YOu can look at pictures. You have the memories of how it was. Like Rome. I lived there. I have stories and (crappy) pictures. Memories. But Rome just isn't here.
New Orleans isn't gone. I know that. It just isn't the way I remember it. That's the worst part. Its that after a year, we've all just kind of gotten adjusted to the state it's in (not that we've stopped rebuilding or anything). That's probably what bothers me the most about it too. Yeah, the sadness from driving by a FEMA trailer or gutted house or closed buisness is still there. But then there's more sadness due to the fact that we've all gotten pretty used to it.
Why?
That's honestly all i can really say about it all. I went through the 5 stages of grief last year with the whole Katrina thing, but now the denial/anger stage is popping up again. I mean, like seriously, WHY? "Why" fill-in-the-blank? But pretty much the summery of all the "why?" questions is "why did this happen?" We still can't answer that. Why isn't it better yet?
When?
I remember this time last year, my first thought was "when?" actually. When can we go home? When will the water be out of the city? When will all those people be rescued? When is it all gunna be okay again? I feel like "when" is a pretty optimistic word. It implies that the following sentence will actually occur at some point. "when will you do your reading?" "Before class." Unfortunatly, none of the "whens" I was asking actually had any concrete answers. Which of course lead to the discouraging "whys".
But maybe relating a disaster to the interogative words that were going through my head at the time isn't the clearest way to make sense of it all. And maybe that's the point--that it all still doesn't make any sense.
And maybe there was an alligator swimming through my kitchen this time last year.
New Orleans isn't gone. I know that. It just isn't the way I remember it. That's the worst part. Its that after a year, we've all just kind of gotten adjusted to the state it's in (not that we've stopped rebuilding or anything). That's probably what bothers me the most about it too. Yeah, the sadness from driving by a FEMA trailer or gutted house or closed buisness is still there. But then there's more sadness due to the fact that we've all gotten pretty used to it.
Why?
That's honestly all i can really say about it all. I went through the 5 stages of grief last year with the whole Katrina thing, but now the denial/anger stage is popping up again. I mean, like seriously, WHY? "Why" fill-in-the-blank? But pretty much the summery of all the "why?" questions is "why did this happen?" We still can't answer that. Why isn't it better yet?
When?
I remember this time last year, my first thought was "when?" actually. When can we go home? When will the water be out of the city? When will all those people be rescued? When is it all gunna be okay again? I feel like "when" is a pretty optimistic word. It implies that the following sentence will actually occur at some point. "when will you do your reading?" "Before class." Unfortunatly, none of the "whens" I was asking actually had any concrete answers. Which of course lead to the discouraging "whys".
But maybe relating a disaster to the interogative words that were going through my head at the time isn't the clearest way to make sense of it all. And maybe that's the point--that it all still doesn't make any sense.
And maybe there was an alligator swimming through my kitchen this time last year.