Storms and Stuff

Hurricane Irene is headed our way and the media have told us to prepare for this emergency. Many people are piling up food and water and flashlights. Others are rushing around trying to find safe places to put their lawn furniture. Still others have headed for the hills.

Which asks the question: what actually is worth worrying about? And to what extent do we worry about the wrong things? I recently read Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky - all about the exodus from Paris in 1940, when everyone thought Hitler would flatten the city. The tale is terrifyingly human, as people worry about their china, their money, their papers, their pets…. And the tragic irony that completes the book is that Ms. Nemirovsky herself managed to save most of her essential belongings from a threat that turned out to be not a threat - and then was rounded up by fellow citizens and to be killed in a concentration camp.

Everything is just stuff, except for human life. Treasure it.