Mother Nature no happy

As we all know by now, the predicted Frankenstorm indeed turned out to be a monster. Many friends, relatives, and neighbors in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have been affected.

We were fortunate not to have flooding or power outages in the part of Brooklyn where I'm currently living, but Sandy impacted all of us in many ways and the devastation wreaked has been astounding. Some of my relatives still haven't been able to move back to Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore, while other friends have lost their homes completely. Along with the life's work of many other artists based at the Westbeth building in Manhattan's West Village, the Martha Graham Dance company's historic costumes and sets were submerged in 8 feet of water for days and suffered irreparable damage. The company is now trying to preserve whatever they can, from precious costumes worn by Graham herself to sets created by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

Here are some links at which you can help:

New York Cares - volunteer to help with Hurricane Sandy Relief

United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund

Martha Graham Dance Company - Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund

Natural Resources Defense Council | NRDC

You may ask why I've included that last one. It links to an organization that fights hard to protect our planet, and their work gives me hope.

Maybe we can't say for sure that Hurricane Sandy was caused by global warming. But we need to protect the environment REGARDLESS of what is or isn't causing climate change. There are so many reasons -- the disappearance of species, the disappearance of natural and "unspoiled" lands, the threats to our food supply by the commercial aims of companies like Monsanto... I can hardly believe that these things have reached the point that they have. When people say that the economy etc. should be more of a priority, I truly wish they could realize that the way we treat our planet is quite directly connected to the economy and to so many other aspects of our well-being.

I remember the gas lines in the 1970s and the consequent banning of station wagons and other gas guzzlers, and how astonished I was to see the later mass popularity of SUVs that seemed to represent an amnesia and/or denial about the environmental concerns brought to light in those earlier years. At the same time there has also been a great increase in awareness about organic, local, and sustainable food, clothing, building, and holistic philosophy; these things give me hope too.