thoughts on the news of the day: floodgates

hmmm…..

            The floodgates have opened up at Morganza Spillway in Louisiana to relieve the swollen waters of the Mississippi River.  The water will be diverted away from the populous cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans and onto mostly farmland and lightly populated areas.  But when you are a resident of those areas, it will mean evacuating family and possessions and the likelihood that everything left behind will be gone.  What’s interesting is that the soon-to-be flood victims seem to be in acceptance of the fact.  There is no storming of city hall in protest of the floods, no internet campaign to stop the opening of the floodgates; just people calmly and deliberately packing up their belongings.

            Sometimes you have to just do something even if it’s wrong.  Opening up the spillway and flooding once safe and dry homes does not seem like a very good thing to do.  But it’s about the only choice that officials have left if they are to save the larger cities on the Mississippi River.

            We get left in that position at times.  We have to make a choice between two not very good options.  Neither is good; but a decision has to be made.  So we do something we don’t want to do; and we figure out how to live our lives in the aftermath of that decision.  Acceptance is the key to peace of mind. We cannot change the roaring of flood waters spilling into our lives; but we can find a way to peace.

            hmmm…..