I have not yet really begun to write about the floods that hit South Carolina. Not since being in Dallas after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita has it been so exhausting, scary, hopeful, sad, and communal.
Here are some photos. At the end, I've shared the words of a great poet...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/weather/drone-footage-shows-south-carolina-flooding/2015/10/04/a2cfce0e-6abe-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_video.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuy0IIe08k8
So here are a few words, Maya Angelou's not mine but one of my favorite poems. I'll keep working on what I want to say.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
I am yours--your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.
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