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John Minchillo/Associated Press The East Coast prepares for Hurricane Sandy |
A few years back I stayed in a hermit's hut
in a Franciscan hermitage in the woods of Minnesota.
It was almost May
but snow still remained under the trees,
which themselves looked as though they had been through a fire,
so seared were they by the bitterness of the winter
they had survived.
I learned while I was there
that driving into a white-out and praying to get through,
re-planting your orchard after the trees
have been up-rooted by a hurricane,
sleeping in the airport when storms blew in,
or having a wild cat turn up in your back yard
are just a few of the things we would see as extremes,
but there are regarded as routine.
For the first time I realised up close
that it is the untameable nature of the country
that maintains the Americans pioneering spirit.
They are a "pick up and start again" people,
and as if to underline this,
as I write, an American woman
being interviewed by Paxman on the effect of the super storm
on the forth coming election,
is telling him that though it is serious
they are used to riding out storms,
and that this will not have the effect we over here imagine.
Wow!
As this great storm unleashes it's force,
and as the American people ride it out,
I echo the nation's prayer,
God Bless America.
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