Erika Perspectives: Tragedy or Triumph? Compare: "This is a
period of national tragedy," Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt
Skerrit said. "Floods swamped villages, destroyed homes and
wiped out roads. Some communities are no longer recognizable."
He said Dominica was set back 20 years. Then... you have the
safe, dry MIT Academic: "Given how dry Puerto Rico and parts of
Florida have been, "it could be a net benefit, this thing," said
MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel."
20 people are dead. 31 people are missing. Numbers. There are
names somewhere but right now, they're numbers. Something always
seemed wrong about that to me. I'm grateful it's not coming to
get _me_ of course. But that was happenstance. I could be a #17.
Who or what am I grateful to? I don't know. Happenstance? God?
Randomness? All I know for certain is that there are complex
systems interacting with other complex systems. I don't know how
it all got started. For me, the who or what question doesn't
matter as much. I like all the things we're finding out about
chaos and complex systems. I eat that stuff up. I'm still a
little sad when people die and grateful that I'm still here. To
me, that's being human. Maybe it's not. But it is to me.
