Tuning Out, Tuning In

My office officially opened today,  a week after Sandy struck the East Coast,  and the city slowly lurched back to 'normal life.'  While I was very happy to put something on other than yoga pants and  travel into "Big Town", it suddenly seemed like a different season,  chilly and dark by 5 pm, a foreshadowing of winter months ahead.

Most of the subway lines were now working but service was crowded and a little slow.  Many offices didn't have heat, many people in the area still didn't have power or gas for their cars.  Shattering reports of the loss of lives and homes continued on the news, thousands of people in flooded areas who've lost so much and have no place to go.   The other lead news story has been the Presidential election, slogging out for several months now, and taking its tole on many.

I've found myself selectively tuning out the national and metro area discourse yet tuning in to what I would call the "micro conversation' happening at a hyper local level here. The one where we're staying very much in touch, and helping each other out through the collective trauma of the past week.  The one where we're quickly responding to grassroots calls for volunteers or critical supplies needed in some of the most impacted areas that haven't been reached by FEMA or Red Cross.  The one where we're a little humbler and kinder than we usually are, or at least complain a little less.

 "Humans of New York" , the 'photographic census of New York' site, with the pitch perfect tenor for the city, shows me the story of the storm that I really want to know...

"These kids made me laugh. Despite their predicament, they were pretty excited about being on HONY. When I walked up, they were in the process of dismounting from the boat. But they helped me out by piling back in for the photo op."  
https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork

"We ordered a bunch of pizzas for the firefighters. And when we came to pick them up, they refused to let us pay for them."

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork

"I discovered these four on a devastated street in New Dorp. They were cleaning debris out of a flooded house. The couple on the left is from Harlem. The couple on the right is from Ireland. They met this morning on the Staten Island Ferry, and decided to spend the day volunteering together."

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork

Firefighters from FDNY Engine 228. When I was taking the photo, a bystander leaned in and whispered: "They aren't even on the job. It's their day off."
https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork

"America was a great force in the world, with immense prestige, long before we became a great military power. The power has come to us and we cannot renounce it, but neither can we afford to forget that the real constructive force in the world comes not from bombs, but imaginative ideas, warm sympathies, and a generous spirit."  

- Robert F. Kennedy, "Make Gentle the Life of This World"

We're going to continue to hear a lot about what went wrong, in the storm, in our city infrastructure and response, in our country.  Don't forget what's happening that's right.