Prefatory Notes: Hurricane Ian, in three-landfalls – Cuba, Florida, and South Carolina – has caused billions of dollars in material damage and, most importantly, the losses of life. The name “Ian” – of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew “Yohanan” – means “God is gracious.”
Looking at myself (and as others look at me), I am defined by race as black or African American, by ethnicity, given my paternal Cuban heritage, Hispanic, and by nationality, American.
The present time is one of increasingly great and dreadfully grave polarization.
Disaster, as an inescapably shared experience, strips away all superficial classifications (barriers and boundaries) with which we humans distinguish (separate, alienate) ourselves one from another.
Ian is a disastrously gracious reminder that I am a human being. Daring to universalize my observation, we, each and all of us, are human beings.
This, then, is my prayer: May we be human with, to, and for one another. Amen.
© 2022 PRA
#HurricaneIan #naturaldisaster #thecommonalityofhumanity #humanbeings #beinghuman
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 