How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

My parents enjoyed musicals, and some of my earliest memories are of listening to records of show tunes. I don't always remember which song goes with which musical, but I remember the words to many of them. Imagine my surprise when, many years later, various of my sons' friends also enjoyed musicals and spontaneously broke into song when inspired by a related situation.

Today's title comes courtesy of the most recent hurricane, Maria. We are still reeling from Irma -- classes just resumed here today and not yet resumed in many parts of the state -- and are now being warned that Maria will take a similar track, at a similar speed, causing similar damage. As I mentioned, my neighborhood fared well; however, that wasn't the case with all of Jacksonville's neighborhoods. I have been busy (and not busy) with other things, so I haven't cleaned up all the yard mess from Irma. I am sponsoring and hosting two volunteer events later in the week. I won't be too sad if those are canceled, but I will be extremely upset if our state is hit with another storm so close on the tail of the last one. My students said this morning, "So does that mean we'll miss another two weeks of class?" I told them I'd do what I could to make sure they succeeded in my class, but I have no control over the weather.

That knowledge -- that there's no way we can control anything -- is tough. It isn't just that we can't control the weather; it's also that we can't know what the weather is going to do. Uncertainty is often the scariest thing and we're right back there again. I know many folks are fatigued by the hurricane itself and also by the watching-and-waiting period preceding it. My solution -- and I expect it will be the same for others -- is to ignore the news for a while. The fact is that we can't do much to solve the problem of Maria, or any other storm, and to spend day after day anticipating what it might do (or watching The Weather Channel anticipate what it might do) is overload for our already shattered nerves. By Thursday I may be ready for just a little bit of weather news.