by Joanne Wiklund
A Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem came to mind when I watched hurricane coverage on TV. “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,” is often quoted when hurricanes are moving about the world. In the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Colderidge tells of a sailor who shoots and kills an albatross. A good luck token for mariners, the sailers hang the albatross around his neck. They have lost hope and are sure they are all going to die. A sad, terrible, long descriptive poem it is.
The irony of being surrounded by water and not being able to drink is alive and well in the Southeast states. A first responder was asked by a meteorologist what they were giving survivors. A personal kit with a toothbrush, a wash rag, hand soap. But she said the first thing most people ask for is water. They can be standing in a house flooded to their knees and the first thing they want: a drink. Secondly, a working cell phone to call someone who they know is frantic to hear their voice.
What can we do to help from where we are? Action time. Pray and send money. Hug if you can. A lot of words, no. Just be there for support for all. Spread the love around. Put out a flood of it. Prayer, if not in person, intercessary prayer for people involved in these two disasters, back to back. First responders, nurses, pilots, are suffering too, operating on adrenaline, lack of sleep.
At nearly the end of Coleridge’s poem is the stanza I wish everyone remembered.:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
(My thanks to the Poetry Foundation for sharing the entire work.)
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”