The Brilliance and the Brutality
These fascinating clouds hung around us on Tuesday night as we drove to church.
This evening Adam and I returned home on the ferry at sunset.
Lately I've been sketching squirrels.
At Green Bay Marina, the hurricane surge crashed through buildings that had been there a long time, leaving shredded walls.
One of the trailers at Green Bay had its skirt ripped away, and its hurricane straps snapped.
This trailer was pushed from its foundation and ripped apart.
I turned from that shattered trailer and looked at the "Point" at Green Bay -- the tip of the property that juts into the water and faced the worst of the hurricane.
How peaceful it is now! Only two camper trailers sit there now. Really, the marina should have only these kind that can be removed easily before a storm. See how open this Point is? There were a handful of single-wides there, and Hurricane Florence swept them off their foundations, into the creeks, and away. No one knows where they are. In their place is now this peaceful park. Thankfully, their owners evacuated.
The world is full of both brutality and brilliant beauty. Here's another Goudge quote that addresses this:
"As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself."
I love that last truth. Even the brutality and callousness of life can be softened, and some of the saddest, darkest, or most destructive scenes of human existence -- can't they be redeemed? Mercy and sympathy given in a moment of anguish are most beautiful, and can be more powerful than the suffering itself. But leave it to Goudge to pick a perfect image, a filthy street and a blue mist, to show it.
6 comments:
It's hard to imagine the force of a hurricane. I'm sorry for the folks whose trailers were swept away but so glad they had left in time.
Mary Katherine, you are a beautiful writer. Thank you for sharing the quote and imagery. The damage is painful to look at and I'm thankful the owners evacuated.
Mary Kathryn, you write beautifully!! and that squirrel you sketched is really good. It would be pretty framed and hanging on a wall. Your pictures taken from the ferry are simply beautiful. Oh, and the other pictures, the damage from Florence, is sad. Hope it's a long long time before there is another hurricane heading our way.
Cool sky pictures. We have been having some unusual cloud formations.
Nice job of the squirrel pictures.
Love the Goudge quote! And what you said about it is very true. Hope everyone is well on the road to recovering from the hurricane!
We discovered this just a year ago this week, here where the Northern California Firestorm devastated large areas. 8900 structures (think HOMES, the majority of those) burned to the ground, and 44 deaths, 90,000 evacuated. But the tales of love and sacrifice, the gaining of new perspective on community and on what is important, are compelling. As you say, "Mercy and sympathy given in a moment of anguish are most beautiful, and can be more powerful than the suffering itself." I think our community would say Amen to that.
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