Tonight there are 35,000 sweating Christians somewhere in the back hills of Virginia. They haven't had power for 11 days now. At least that's what the lady on NPR told me. They interviewed one sweet thickly-accented woman who apparently lived in a trailer home stuck without electricity - I imagine the equivalent to being kept in a tin can in the sun for days- but she just said that there was "no sense in takin' it out on anybody". Another woman, looking for ice to keep her food from spoiling, was interviewed at a church (which didn't have ice, but did offer to cook her a hot meal thank you very much). She was grateful and patient - no angry spitting in the direction of the power company who seemed to be moving to the hills at the speed of a DMV line. Same grace and fortitude from the nice lady with diabetes who had been storing 9 bottles of insulin in her refrigerator, which now was completely without power and not at all cold.
And here I sit with the dining room fan lazily churning the warm air above me and the swamp cooler working out its last legs down the hall and I have no right to complain about the heat.
p.s. I haven't written for so long and I'm so excited to start up again, so think like a Virginian without power and be patient with my efforts.
