LauderBlog
Aug 31: The Calm After
Posted On: August 31, 2006 2:50 PM
Posted By: LauderBLOGGER
Related Subjects: Greater Fort Lauderdale
I just came back from Stork’s on Las Olas. I was sipping iced coffee again (and this time, munching on a chocolate chip cookie), enjoying the sunshine. If you read my previous blog, that should tell you all you need to know about our recent “storm.” Ernesto didn’t amount to much, despite all the media’s handwringing. I know the weather-prediction folks did their best. This tropical storm didn’t produce as much wind and rain as a typical South Florida thundershower. The sun is shining and the sky is blue. But the experience has gotten me thinking about how fear sometimes needlessly controls our lives.
After 9/11, some people refused to fly – and still do. After recent hurricanes, some people refused to visit any area where tropical winds can blow. And when a storm brews in the Atlantic, some locals here hightail it to Kansas or some state where they’ll feel “safe.” (Haven’t they ever seen “The Wizard of Oz”?) But I guess nowhere is really totally safe, is it? I lived in San Francisco for more than a year and a half and felt not a single tremor. I moved to Vermont, of all places, and lived through three minor earthquakes. Who could have anticipated that? And remember Y2K? When the millennium rolled around, I was determined to welcome 2000 in grand style. Despite dire Y2K warnings, my then-wife and I traveled to Greece, where we experienced the most extraordinary celebration at midnight on the Acropolis. I’ll never forget it – and I haven’t forgotten how her family begged us not to go.
My point, I guess, is just this: Maybe too many of us let our lives be ruled too often by fear. When a storm is coming, we have to take sensible precautions, of course. Then we should relax. I live in a house that was built in 1947, practically historic by South Florida standards – and it’s been standing within a mile of the sea ever since, without hurricane shutters. I believe it will still be standing long after I move to another home. And so, with Ernesto quietly gone, I plan to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer here. Because the reality is, hurricanes remain a rarity where I live. Despite the media, I have every reason to expect things will stay that way.
After 9/11, some people refused to fly – and still do. After recent hurricanes, some people refused to visit any area where tropical winds can blow. And when a storm brews in the Atlantic, some locals here hightail it to Kansas or some state where they’ll feel “safe.” (Haven’t they ever seen “The Wizard of Oz”?) But I guess nowhere is really totally safe, is it? I lived in San Francisco for more than a year and a half and felt not a single tremor. I moved to Vermont, of all places, and lived through three minor earthquakes. Who could have anticipated that? And remember Y2K? When the millennium rolled around, I was determined to welcome 2000 in grand style. Despite dire Y2K warnings, my then-wife and I traveled to Greece, where we experienced the most extraordinary celebration at midnight on the Acropolis. I’ll never forget it – and I haven’t forgotten how her family begged us not to go.
My point, I guess, is just this: Maybe too many of us let our lives be ruled too often by fear. When a storm is coming, we have to take sensible precautions, of course. Then we should relax. I live in a house that was built in 1947, practically historic by South Florida standards – and it’s been standing within a mile of the sea ever since, without hurricane shutters. I believe it will still be standing long after I move to another home. And so, with Ernesto quietly gone, I plan to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer here. Because the reality is, hurricanes remain a rarity where I live. Despite the media, I have every reason to expect things will stay that way.
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Posted By hurricane shutters | 09/30/2010 8:50 AM