“Kat 5” Living the “Ten/Ten”

 

The Ten/Ten is an expression for ten minutes up, ten minutes down. How a person feels in a disaster situation. Grieving for a loved one, while being thankful for a sandwich.  

Depression management for when there are no options. We are like bubbles floating, bobbing up and down on the sea of emotion. This can be an easily overlooked mental state when life is relatively comfortable.  

This is a slice of life paraphrased from many voices from the Gulf States Area 

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Imagine you’re slogging through chest high bung water holding up high, a child and bag of stuff. That child is all that’s left of your family. The bag is all that’s left of your possessions, your kid’s clothes, your family pictures, your stuff, your whole life. Well, it didn’t fit in that bag, oh yeah, your picture of your family is in your wallet, in your back pocket, below the murky water line for the last couple days. Yeah, of course you’re lucky you didn’t drown, but the situation is like none other. 

“Dear God, I hope my wife and other two kids are ok, somehow, somewhere, maybe I’ll still find them.” 

It’s been Two weeks 

“I’m tired of crying, but I don’t know what to do. Living on a cot, telling my kid everything is gonna be ok. I wish “drinking” could fix this mess, take me out of it for just a little while, a break from all this misery.” But it won’t, it’ll just make it worse. “Whats gonna happen with the loan on my house?, my car?”

The unknowing, the uncertainty, Will there be any real help?

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Some of our Therian friends are still unheard from. We are here, waiting. Time goes by. We go about our lives, the “forgetting” wants to close in around the rest of us, and we can laugh and play, and indulge ourselves in escapism. And really, THERE is a place steeped in escapism. But, our friends in THERE are real, and we know it. Calamity in the “actual” world affects us, and from that, no escape is possible. 

I still haven’t heard from Uncle Flip, and thankfully many have touched base, and given us an update about some Therians and their families in the Gulf States area. I’m hoping to hear something. Please email me if you have word of someone trying to get through. 

The victims, the rescuers, the friends and families, are all getting some of the Ten/Ten.

I guess that’s how it goes, but the “forgetting” has to be kept back, for a while longer, it just has to. The Red Cross, despite the money already received, are still out there working andhelping the devastated people, and will be for quite some time. The stories are beginning to come out more and more these days. 

Donate to KRF and put a few T$Bucks to do some good in the real world. 

Reporting for the Voice of There,

Archie 

archie@therevoice