An Extraordinary Notice

We live in Internet time and are inundated with information which comes at us from many sources at all hours of the day. So perhaps we can be excused for developing a "news bite" focus on the world.

Yesterday's news is so passe. Our attention span is relegated to the current day, the current hour, the current minute. How can we be expected to maintain an awareness of something that happened months ago, touched our lives for a few days, and then seemingly went away.

Unfortunately for some, it didn't go away. A news brief that crossed my desk this afternoon poignantly reminded me of that.

As reported by News 8 Austin, March 2, 2009:

"A boil water advisory in effect since shortly after Hurricane Ike hit Bolivar Peninsula has been lifted as supply lines return service to normal.

A statement from the Bolivar Peninsula Special Utility District said customers are no longer required to boil water prior to consumption."

Yes, Hurricane Ike touched our minds and hearts last September, and for a few days we sent donations, we kept the victims in our prayers, and we gasped in amazement at the images which came from the Texas coast. And then we got back in our groove and moved on. We assumed that all that could be done was done, and that Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula would soon be back to normal.

We were sadly wrong.

"Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be." --W. H. Auden