Housing Perspective

For years I've been dreaming, planning, and drawing. The Wimberley house will be a nice weekend getaway in the country, a great place to go for a different perspective on life. I now stand on the brink of achieving that dream. As incredible coincidence or God's master plan (take your pick of the two) would have it, my perspective got a major attitude adjustment over the past four days. I was part of a group that traveled to New Orleans to help with the hurricane recovery effort. A group of loving people whose building skills ranged from "rather amusing" to "wow, not bad". The first photo shows one of the homes the team worked on, with their efforts clearly visible in the front yard. It is one of the tens of thousands of homes owned by displaced Americans still craving an end to their long hurricane nightmare.

The second photo shows our volunteer team from Houston, a group I scarcely knew at all before the trip, but now can never forget. We stayed at the Salvation Army during our visit, but had the luxury of having dinner in this historic home in a rare not-so-damaged part of New Orleans. Ten hours later we were starting our second day of work not far away, but on another planet altogether.

I feel like I could write for days and never fully explain what it's like to finally understand this tragedy. I've traveled to New Orleans several times on business since the disaster, noting the incredible damage but not really appreciating the real human impact. Maybe I was too busy planning the Wimberley house to see it. I've witnessed extreme poverty all over the world, but somehow was not ready for this. It seems impossible to reconcile how a country that can launch a cruise missile to within inches of any target in the world can't do more to help. So, for now it is up to us, and the battered but tough people of New Orleans.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to avoid crying when thinking about our team, the people they helped, or the people they couldn't help. Hell, I'm not sure I ever WANT to stop crying about it. About the only things I am sure of are:
1) I feel blessed to have gone,
2) I want to go back to do more, and
3) Picking interior decorating materials for the Wimberley house is not so important any more.