The name Sandy brought to mind a first childhood friend. He was a ginger haired glasses boy named Sandy, and all at once the nearest memory and distant past intertwine. Where is he now? What does Sandy do and look as an adult? Suppose lots of us have similar associations from named storms and people.
This is Memo, pretty certain he will get a storm named after him.
Hurricane Sandy brought something last experienced 11 years ago in September. Both occurences left the city on quiet lockdown and with no power or ability to leave, days were spent with my truely's Esme & Devon. They made it up to my place the day the towers fell and up to them I went after the storm.
"It reminded me of the way a friend described Manhattan after 9/11: Uptown was a color movie, downtown was black and white." Joyce Wadler "Lessons Gleaned in the Glow of a Giant Night Light"
Perched atop a hill my childhood home in Tucson, AZ would be moated from the monsoon rains. The bumpy dirt road a river and tiny bridge a pebble under the rapids. Looking out over our cliff to see a gushing body of water where desert was once, a thrilling site to see.
As an adult the scope of natures disasterous effects make the danger far from exilirating. Admittedly having not payed enough attention to reported catastrophies in distant places before, life quickly enough patches up and moves on. The nuisance of having no power for days is ok, but to those who lost a home, a life, or an artist life's work..
My post Sandy week has been saving drowned art works on tabled triages between sheets of bounty. What is to be saved and the sickening act of pitching a piece worth 30k into a trash heap. After the flood many Chelsea galleries are faced with uncertain reopenings.
To help where we can do the most and keep moving forward through the frustratingly slow recovery with the tenacity of any weather worn torn New Yorker. This Thanksgiving will be an especially important one for us as we have come together to warm those who are cold and feed those who are without.
Please consider a donation to New York Cares HERE.