A question to myself...How has Katrina affected your life personally and professionally?

Hurricane Katrina profoundly affected my understanding of community. We are deeply interconnected to each other and to our environment. We need each other and rely on each other whether we want to admit it or not. During the storm and in its aftermath, neighbors took care of each other and complete strangers became good Samaritans. But I fear that we are drifting apart once again, fatigued by the need and frustrated by different visions of justice.

Our world, and especially our culture, does not seem to comprehend and appreciate community. While I cannot offer a concrete definition, I am referring to community that is defined by shared goals, shared hopes, shared needs, and shared resources. I am not talking about vapid utopianism or the nightmare of socialism; however, I am suggesting a deliberate effort to open ourselves to each other and recognition that the accomplishments of one are built upon the efforts of us all. We stand in such profound need of each other; yet continue to live as if everything we have and need can be provided by our hands alone?!

Katrina helped me realize that real community is rough around the edges, often difficult, and usually quite messy…but it is the only way for us to survive or, more importantly, for us to truly thrive. I pray a time will come when complete devastation of the Gulf Coast will not be what is required for us to be a community united.