Lessons in the Gas Lines following Super Storm Sandy

Lessons in the Gas Lines 

following Super Storm Sandy

On 29 October 2012 with hurricane force winds and rain, Super Storm Sandy pelted the coastal regions of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  Resulting in several human casualties, billions of dollars in property and material losses and substantial damages to roads, bridges, public transportation systems and other types of infrastructure, Super Storm Sandy comparatively remains the worst natural disaster in United States history.  The longstanding ravages of Hurricane Katrina which pounded the greater New Orleans region on 29 August 2005 seemed insurmountable.  Nine years later as residents of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi rebuild their lives, they offer hope to their fellow citizens in the Northeast region.  In the Breezy Point neighborhood in the borough of Staten Island in New York City, one hundred houses burned in one swoop as an uncontrollable fire ignited inexplicably and raged ferociously.  Firefighters had to withdraw given the magnitude of the blaze.  Interestingly, a wall of water created by the storm encircled the burning houses simultaneously containing the fire and preventing first responders from saving any property.  News footage captured the helplessness of emergency personnel and Breezy Point residents as Mother Nature forced everyone to stand in amazement and watch her lethal and merciless handiwork.  A year and a half following Super Storm Sandy, countless residents in the Northeast strive to rebuild their lives and property as they grapple with local, state and federal governmental officials to obtain financial and other resources. 

A resident of Cambria Heights, New York in the borough of Queens, I received divine and circumstantial favor as my family and neighbors did not experience the tremendous and incalculable losses of our fellow citizens.  Fallen trees littered our lawns, driveways and side streets.   Collapsed power lines conjured fear of shock and electrocution as pools of water lay adjacent.  After remaining patiently indoors and listening to howling winds and observing its fierce destructive abilities, we emerged in the storm’s aftermath with our lives and property relatively intact.  Actually, a huge tree fortunately fell onto a neighbor’s front yard rather than onto both of my cars which I left on the street.  I should have parked them in the driveway between my house and my neighbor’s residence.  Still, my problems in the aftermath of the storm were miniscule compared to thousands of other families who continue to find “a new normal.”

Whether a person sustained substantial or minimal material and property damage in the aftermath of the storm, all citizens in this region faced a circumstantial “gas shortage.”  Unlike the long lines in the late 1970s in which OPEC turned off the valve and deliberately limited the supply of oil to the United States and other Western nations to inflate artificially gasoline prices, I stood in line for hours seeking to purchase gas.  Many stations had gas but were unable to pump and sale it because of power shortages.  Generators were in high demand.  The combination of power outages, inability to pump fuel, need for generators and challenges in transporting gasoline produced a shortage.  For nearly a month following the storm, I had to incorporate purchasing fuel into my daily and weekly routines.  Will I stand in line today?  If not, how many days can I still travel before I absolutely must buy gas?  I had to consider the essential trips to and from school and dropping off and picking up my wife at the commuter train station.  I maximized each trip in the car.  I only used the car when very necessary.  As it related to balancing competing priorities of time and resources, my experience was not unique.  Average residents of the tri-state region faced the same reality. 

I did not appreciate fully that a “gas shortage” threatened daily routines and conveniences.  Cambria Heights borders Long Island; within five minutes of leaving my front door, I reach the Nassau County line.  Though I saw lines forming at neighborhood gas stations, I ignored them as overzealous and reactionary people whose anxiety overwhelmed them.  The residents of Long Island sensed the looming threat of a gasoline shortage before New York City dwellers fully absorbed the magnitude of the burgeoning crisis.  People from Nassau County came into Queens to fill-up their gas tanks.  Despite listening to public service announcements on the radio and television, many New York City residents like me casually and cavalierly disregarded the wise advice to get fuel.

Within days, the magnitude of the gas shortage became evident as everyone had to consider whether he or she had sufficient gas to get to and from work, handle normal familial obligations such as grocery shopping and school transport and respond to medical emergencies if necessary.  Only one quarter of gas stations in the greater New York area were operating.  Power shortages in the Northeast region resulted in delivery challenges.  Some stations waited for greatly anticipated deliveries.  As gas became an invaluable commodity, long lines formed at gas stations with fuel and the capacity to pump it.  By the Thursday following the storm, the gas shortage was most evident to citizens of the City and tri-state region.  Stations created two different lines.  You could stand in line with approved gas containers.  First, you could fill as many gas cans as you could carry.  Within a week, station managers had to enforce strict limits of three containers per purchase. 

On Friday, November 2^nd, I stood in line for the first time.  I immediately recall just how cold it was.  Within the three and a half hours that I kept moving my two containers inch by inch until  I finally made it to a pump, I became colder and colder as a progressive wind chill coupled with cloudiness of a fall day tempted me to abandon a necessary task for my family.  Second, there were car lines, which stretched blocks in length.  Ironically, many people burned a lot of gas as they waited in their vehicles to fill-up their tanks.  Erroneously, some people thought they were saving fuel by turning the ignition on and off as they crawled in the car lines.  Actually, that method consumes more gas than it saves.  Desperation often overpowers reason.  Interestingly, both types of lines demonstrated the best and worst of human nature.  Limited resources usually result in scarcity of human consideration, graciousness and goodwill.

I waited in line with personified frustrations of persons who simply sought to purchase gasoline and return to their daily existence.  I observed many people attempting to buy gas with wrong containers.  The station manager told several people to leave the line; he would not risk a citation and fine for dispensing fuel in milk jugs, glossy party mix jugs, cartons, glass cider and vinegar jugs and other flimsy and insufficient containers.  Despite his concern for his license to operate and consideration of their safety, many of these people persisted in their demands to buy gas; after all, they had waited for an hour or more.  Incredulously, the possibility of transforming their cars into potential bombs, as the gas would have burned through those inadequate containers and probably ignite in reaction to any spontaneous spark, did not alarm any of these frustrated people.  

Lessons in the Gas Lines following Super Storm Sandy Part II

Lessons in the Gas Lines 

following Super Storm Sandy

Part II

Also, I listened to the lengthy lament of a wife whose husband called as she waited to scold her for failing to be in line sooner.  Understandably, as the primary provider for their family, the husband’s work schedule prevented him from attending to this critical need for his wife and children.  His impatience and compassionless criticism seemed harsh and inconsiderate as we waited in falling temperatures and rising wind chills. 

Rather surprisingly, I along with countless other parents stood in these long lines; our children were invisible.  On one day, I overheard the phone conversation of a young lady who profanely and profusely complained to a friend.  “My Mom has me standing in this damn gas line when she knows I am allergic to the smell of gasoline.  Besides, I don’t want to do this [expletive!]”  The young lady proceeded for an additional half hour to inundate her friend with every conceivable profane word and thought.  It did not appear she considered how arduous waiting in frigid temperatures amongst feverishly irritated human beings whose latent fears about potentially scarce fuel resources ignited the passions and choices of their lower beings.  Continually I relegate that young lady’s selfishness, insensitivity and indifference to her mother’s needs as regrettably indicative of a generation that lacks capacity to allow the needs of other people to penetrate their consciousness and influence their choices.  Were you to multiply that young lady’s apathy, you begin to appreciate the collective incivility of many people in the gas lines. 

Another gentleman exhorted anyone within ear shot about the failure of the New York City government to establish a pecking order for the gas lines.  Because he lacked fuel to operate his personal generator, he was unable to heat his home.  He did not disclose whether there were any infants, senior citizens or seriously ill members of his household.  Quite possibly, the composition of his family would not have had any bearing upon the situation.  Each person in line could argue an equally logical and personally significant reason for a privileged spot in line.  Nonetheless, several listeners who shared his predicament of living through the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy without electricity agreed with his primary premise; citizens without power deserved some type of preferential consideration. 

Yet another woman in line began to insist that she deserved advancement to the front of the line because of her job.  The verbal barrage of condemnation and criticism she received for stating aloud that her job exceeded the priority and worth of everyone else’s soon quieted her self-importance and grandiosity.   Many other people in line shared her self-centeredness expressions.  I heard recitations about how arduous the gas shortage was on family and especially children.  People articulated anxieties about having enough gas to attend to school drop-off and pick-up in addition to extracurricular activities, routine family chores and personal errands.  Somehow, the emergence of a shortage multiplied the worth of these daily and mundane tasks; fearing their inability to function normally, most people convinced themselves that their “To Do List” greatly exceeded the importance of other people’s usual activities.  Ordinarily, people complain incessantly about marital requests (items on the proverbial “Honey Do List”), parental obligations and familial commitments; they relegate these administrative tasks which are essential to a healthy and functional family as impositions upon private time and finances.

Did any of us standing in line look beyond our niche in the forest and take a panoramic view of the substantial pain and devastating loss many of our fellow citizens suffered because of Super Storm Sandy?  Were we so self-obsessed that we refuse to view the storm and its incalculable damages in a larger societal context?  As we waited for gasoline and periodically asked people to save our places in line so that we could walk into an adjacent convenience store to purchase snacks and beverages, there were families that did not have any food.  The lack of refrigeration and electrical power completely ruined whatever they had.  Trees fell on cars, into houses and other buildings and onto roadways and driveways.  Actually, downed trees littered many neighborhoods requiring many motorists to swerve and avoid potentially live power lines and possible car accidents.  Water damage closed several schools for weeks.  Flood insurance became a non-negotiable component of many homeowners’ policies.  Did anyone in the gas lines pause to consider the destitution and dispossession of their fellow Americans? 

Feelings of frustration rarely yield gratitude.  All of the persons in line, were they to consider the deaths in addition to the wholesale loss of every material possession, would transform complaints into thanksgiving.  Inconvenience for twenty-first Americans, which indefinitely suspend our use of creature comforts and impede our satisfaction of hedonistic impulses, composes a repertoire of self-centered complaints.  The aftermath of Super Storm Sandy and limited ability to pump and sell gas revealed the very best and the absolute worst in people.  An unbridled demand to oblige personal preferences underlay lengthy pontificating about fundamental fairness and equity in distribution of fuel resources.  Attempts to fill illegal gas containers reflected an indifference to the law and any possibility of governmental violations levied against owners of gas stations.  People were insensitive to the definite probability that inspectors and enforcement officers would immediately close any station that created unknowable dangers in cars, on the roads, bridges, and tunnels; and within homes as people reportedly began to stockpile gasoline in their basements.  Closing any station would have compounded everyone’s worsening situation. 

Escalating tensions regarding a person’s place in line resulted in the need for police patrol at myriad gas stations.  In Brooklyn, shootings, stabbings and hospitalization occurred.  There were a few arrests because of serious threats.  Imagine gun violence and shootings adjacent to gas tanks; one misfire and countless persons may have lost their lives!  Devious schemes to purchase a person’s place in line developed as some people were determined to profit personally from the fuel shortage.  I witnessed several men waiting in line to fill large containers.  They then stopped passing cars to sell the gas at rates as high as ten dollars per gallon.  Parenthetically, the Attorney General of New York State deserves acclamation for ensuring that gas stations and other businesses did not engage in price gouging which usually happens after natural disasters.  Gas prices remained at the same pre-Sandy levels.  Nonetheless, the aftermath of that historically unparalleled and monumental storm revealed people’s charitable, compassionate and merciful disposition as well as their vulgar, sadistic and narcissistic dimension.

Incredibly, a certain strand of American jingoism lays latent within the minds and hearts of average citizens regardless of race, creed, color, ethnicity and culture.  Innumerable times, I heard the arrogant and reprehensible statement.  “This is not a Third World country!”  Beyond the blatant economic, geographical and political chauvinism, the comment reflects increasing moral, ethical and humanitarian decline in the American mindset.  Interestingly, some of the persons pronouncing this vitriol did so with the accents and flourish of the countries and cultures that they condemned.  Have Americans become so comfortable and complacent with daily creature comforts that our lack of them for a brief period of time leads us to esteem their worth over the significance of entire nations of people whose hard labor produces the technology, power and electronics we utilize? 

Lessons in the Gas Lines following Super Storm Sandy Part III

Lessons in the Gas Lines 

following Super Storm Sandy

Part III

Citizens in the United States could learn a lot from Third World neighbors in the global village.  Though these nations are developing in terms of manufacturing, gross national product and other economic indicators, they appear rich in familial, relational and other human resources.  During the last decade of the twentieth century coinciding with the years of the Clinton Administration, Americans experienced unequaled economic prosperity.  The New York Stock Exchange broke ten thousand and sustained that considerable growth for months; the rate of return on investments approximated an average of fifteen percent.  Average Americans per capita individually owned more materially than at any other point in human history.  By the end of the twentieth century, the United States had become home to more than forty thousand (40,000) stand alone storage units.  That mind boggling figure excludes the possessions that Americans have in closets, attics, basements, garages and car trunks.  Quite possibly, Americans store more items than people in Third World countries actually own.  This propensity to acquire more items for its sake and store them created a competitive market of garage and yard sales and auctioning of storage lockers throughout the country.  Perhaps, global neighbors in developing countries could help Americans curb their ferocious and insatiable economic appetites and reorder their priorities. 

One Saturday morning during the weeks of gas shortage, I walked two blocks from my house to a station where people had stood in line over night anticipating a delivery.  An adjacent McDonald’s franchise undoubtedly exceeded its sales goals as the street garbage cans overflowed with their coffee cups, food containers and bags.  Each day possibly earned a week’s worth of normal sales projections as Super Storm Sandy imported an impromptu captive, large and lingering market.  As people waited endlessly in the long gas lines, hunger and the cold forced them into McDonald’s.  Beyond marveling over the incredible amount of fast food that people in line consumed, I was delighted to stumble serendipitously upon an overnight conversation and debate on religion.  A clergy colleague and contemporary in seminary had spent the night in line and participated thoroughly in the discussion.  He holds a doctorate in Modern and American Religious History; yet he possesses the uncanny ability to resist pedantic airs and fully respect laypersons in heated debates about politics and religion.  Beginning with ancient Egyptian civilization and indigenous African religions, the conversation participants traversed the complex, intriguing and provocative terrain of the development of formal belief systems and religious institutions. 

They traveled from East to West surveying origins of Buddhism, Hinduism and the History, Religion and Literature of Israel.  At my arrival with a couple of gas cans circa 8:00am, they had sped through centuries; chronologically, they began in 10,000 BCE.  As I assumed my place in line, they had arrived in Rome following the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s CE.  One gentleman whose physical strength, mental acumen and ideological resolve did not waver despite hours of exposure to natural winter elements took the crowd to task about the rogue and reprehensible actions of Protestant Christendom.  He demanded all Protestants, clergy and laity, immediately and irreversibly repent of their wickedness and the error of their ways by rejoining the “one true Church,” the Holy Roman Catholic Church.  This gentleman’s words reverberated forcefully in the conversation because his remarks reiterated Pope Benedict XVI’s similar position articulated in the first year of his papacy.  Eventually, everyone recovered from the shock of such a wholesale indictment of four hundred and fifty divergent strands of Protestant Christianity,

The conversation turned toward recent financial, sexual, political and moral scandals of Protestant clergy.  As an African American clergyperson with twenty-six years of professional experience, I felt compelled to ask the crowd to resist the easy temptation of depicting my colleagues with broad brushstrokes which result quickly from incendiary and inflammatory news accounts pertaining to atypical pastors at mega churches who lust for celebrity and fortune.  My valiant efforts proved futile in response to the understandable and entrenched cynicism relating to clergy within any of the five major faiths.  That iceberg floating in the ocean of public discourse is much wider and deeper than I suspect.  Nonetheless, I then recalled the event that was to begin at the church within in the next hour.  Regrettably, I had to leave.  Still, I marveled about the depth and breadth of that theological and historical seminar in a gas line.  Genuinely, the qualitative exchange of ideas and penetrating questions paralleled graduate school courses.  The aftermath of Super Storm Sandy yielded joys, mysteries and experiences that many of us would not have had otherwise.  Again, that natural disaster unearthed the best and worst of human character.

In the first gas line in which I stood, I learned that an owner of a home improvement company brokered a deal with the station owner.  The home improvement business owned two huge generators that had the capacity to operate two gas tanks and the station’s store.  Whereas the station owner had generators, they were not powerful enough to enable him to sell gas.  With the contingency that he be allowed to commandeer one side of one tank for his business vans and the private vehicles of his employees, the home improvement owner loaned the gas station owner the two generators.  This deal positioned both men and their businesses to maintain operations during the month immediately following the storm when many other enterprises suffered tremendous losses because of the fuel shortage.  As versions of this story seeped through the crowd, many of us became grateful to these anonymous men whose mutually beneficial business deal afforded us an opportunity to care for our families and attend to daily professional and personal demands. 

However, one woman complained incessantly through the hours she stood in line about how unfair it was that the home improvement personnel received special treatment.  Along with other persons in line, I appealed to her to be pragmatic and consider that their boss’s generosity however personally and economically motivated still resulted in favorable actions for us.  Had not the deal been brokered, then there would have been one less gas station open.  The potential loss of that one station would have significantly exacerbated the gas shortage.  All of us would have experienced even greater hardships as would the people we love at home and serve at work.  Incredulously, our appeals to this woman fell on infertile mental and emotional ground.  Within interims of ten to fifteen minutes coinciding with the arrival and departure of the home improvement vans, she restated her objections about the lack of fairness.  The self-centered nature of her shameless grumbling became most evident for anyone continuing to listen.  Many of us simply began to ignore her as she lacked the capacity to look beyond her personal needs and appreciate the good deed that the business produced even if it were not fair fundamentally.  What is?  Her recalcitrance and unwillingness to consider the collective needs of everyone in line and the fact that this deal presented a perfect but albeit human opportunity to meet those needs exposed the pungent and repulsive stench of indifference with which many people respond to this historic natural disaster that adversely affected and effected countless millions of American citizens. 

Lessons in the Gas Lines following Super Storm Sandy Part IV

Lessons in the Gas Lines 

following Super Storm Sandy

Part IV

One day, I shared a space in line with a young man who was experiencing overwhelming anxiety about his athletic ambitions.  Possessed with an athletic intelligence and a commanding knowledge of football, he aspires to play in the National Football League.  But, his physique is rather small; most scouts immediately dismiss him and negate his dreams and goals as they do not posit he could survive and thrive in professional football.  Beyond finances and fame, he greatly desired success as it would enable him to marry his long-term girl friend and future fiancé.  I reasoned he really loves her and earnestly desires to build a life with her.  Their untainted and early love impressed me.  Silently, I prayed for their success and maturity in love and as individuals.  Still, his anxiety plagued him as we talked.  In response to constructive and caring criticism he received from a couple of coaches and scouts, he sought positions on Arena Football teams hoping to parlay any successes into openings on a NFL team roster. 

Recounting the stories of Doug Flutie and Warren Moon, I suggested that this young man consider playing in the Canadian Football League.  Flutie and Moon utilized that route to their NFL dreams and goals; eventually, Flutie achieved the starting quarterback position with the Buffalo Bills and Moon acquired the same position with the Houston Oilers, present day Tennessee Titans.  The young gentleman acknowledged his unawareness about this possibility with a glimmer of hope in his eyes and a broadening smile on his face.  Again, I silently prayed that he would explore this option by researching Canadian Football League teams.  I suggested he produced a DVD profile of his playing skills.  Quite possibly, a scout or coach would call him.  Nevertheless, as we progressed in the line and neared the gas tanks, he reiterated his heart’s desire to arrange his vocational and financial affairs to enable the fulfillment of his heart’s deepest desire at that time; he wanted to marry his girlfriend as soon as he demonstrated his ability to provide for her as he deemed a husband should care for his wife.  With nearly eighteen years of marriage when this conversation occurred, I instantly remembered those feelings of having found the woman you want to marry and doggedly arranging your lifestyle to enable your wish.  As I wished him the very best and prayed genuinely for his personal and professional success, I gave thanks that the gas shortage afforded me the blessing of that encounter.  I humbly hope I imparted hopefulness to him.  His rightly enumerated priorities of love and relationship preceding work and professional ambition reminded me of the importance of valuing marriage and family above personal achievement. 

Carl Jung posits, “Man is an animal with a fatally overgrown brain.”  Natural disaster and human tragedy often expose humankind’s base animal instincts and predatory tendencies.  The emergence of an entrenched and expanding “Black Market” incontrovertibly proved Jung’s bleak assertion regarding human nature.  Senior citizens and persons with disabilities paid ten to fifteen dollars per gallon for gasoline; their critical need for fuel to travel to medical appointments coupled with their inability to wait in the long lines made them fresh prey for unscrupulous persons who waiting only to extort very vulnerable citizens.  I witnessed many transactions as shady individuals hailed cars and sold gasoline at highly inflated prices.  Within a week of the storm, the NYPD began to stop these “Black Market” deals.  People were no longer allowed to fill unlimited containers using grocery carts and red wagons.  To facilitate their schemes, these predators offered to buy other people’s places in line.  Once, one of them offered twenty dollars for my spot.  Beyond the fact that his offer fell way below my hourly billable rate, it offended me because it disrespected the time of everyone else in line.  Imagine the amount of loss wages that accumulated as people from all professions and types of employment forcibly stood in line as they had to have gasoline to travel to and from work.  In addition, some retailers began to inflate the price of gas containers; prices tripled and quadrupled overnight.  Once the gas shortage abated prices for gas containers fell but did not return to their normal rates; mostly, they settled approximately twenty-five percent above pre- Sandy levels.  Commendably, the New York State Attorney General’s Office fiercely and forcefully regulated gas prices to prevent gouging.  Had not he done so, desperate citizens would have paid twenty dollars or more a gallon! 

One of the worst instances of predatory profiteering in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy centered upon free gasoline that President Obama made available to citizens in the most severe areas.  The federal government using armories as distribution centers initially gave ten gallons of gas to citizens who had the means of acquiring it with proper gas containers.  Within hours of this benefit, there were news reports of verbal threats, vulgarity and possible violence.  The common bond of severe need in dire circumstances proved ineffectual in creating unity, respect, and graciousness toward fellow citizens.  Moreover, people retrieved the free gas only to sell it to senior citizens, neighbors and other desperate persons.  Within days, federal authorities cancelled the distribution as it became a means for a thriving “Black Market” which would produce residual crime and hardships upon storm victims.

Whereas natural disasters such as Sandy quickly reveal the worst in human nature, they equally expose the better characteristics of countless, nameless people.  The neighboring state of Connecticut did not experience the gas shortages that the greater New York City and Long Island area did.  Utility companies and state government officials quickly restored power to Connecticut residents.  Gas stations did not need generators and fuel deliveries occurred without interruption.  Not surprisingly, this favorable news trickled down to the five boroughs of New York City; specifically, residents of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx began travelling to the gas stations adorning Interstates 95 and 91 in Connecticut.  Their wait time never neared the long lines in which I stood for hours.  Personally, I observed and benefited from the magnanimity of generosity as a member of our church traveled to Connecticut for gas and spontaneously asked if I wished to purchase any.  His willingness to assume considerable risk to enrich my family’s life and the lives of a few other people continually challenges me to serve faithfully, immediately and willingly when opportunities arise.  Eventually, he filled his trunk with several full containers of gasoline.  An accident with a minimal collision would have transformed his car into a liquid bomb.  Nonetheless, he withstood that formidable risk because embedded within his character is the genuine and humble will to share.  That attribute became more apparent when he discovered subsequent to his return from Connecticut that another member of our church, a single middle-aged woman, needed gas.  Without hesitation, he divided the gas to accommodate her need.  When he arrived at my house, he shared his decision which I understood and agreed.  I refused his offer of reimbursement for the portion of the gas that went to our Christian sister.  His graciousness sufficed as payment. 

Lessons in the Gas Lines following Super Storm Sandy Part V

Lessons in the Gas Lines 

following Super Storm Sandy

Part V

Interestingly, I had the occasion to return this good deed while waiting in a gas line on another day.  An anxious mother seeking to reduce her wait time and expedite her errands actually left the line in which we waited initially.  She walked across the street to grab a place in line as an adjacent gas station.  That line appeared to move faster.  However, unbeknownst to her, each person ahead of her was purchasing larger quantities of gas than in the line she left.  Before she reached the tanks, the station had run out of gas.  Crestfallen, she had to return to the end of the line where she began the day.  Unfortunately, her time was running out as she was due to pick up her daughter from daycare.  Fortuitously, she was returning to the first line as I was leaving with two full gas containers and heading to my car.  After hearing her dilemma, I refused her offer of payment for one of the containers.  I gave the gas to her and a ride to her car which was parked a good walking distance away from both gas stations.  As I put the funnel in the opening to her gas tank and poured the gas, I for the first time understood just how precious of a commodity that gasoline is in Western economies and nations.  Her car was parked yards away from two fell trees; an oak tree essentially blocked off this road as it was impossible for any vehicle to pass around and the other tree fortunately fell in the right direction and landed on the neighbor’s front lawn.  Mother Nature favorably spared this woman’s neighbors a few totaled cars and months of agony of haggling with insurance companies while simultaneously acquiring temporary transportation.  She spared one neighbor the extreme difficulty of substantial home repairs had the tree fallen in the opposite direction.  Observing these details in those few moments made me grateful.

On a few occasions as I waited in line, I observed the best of human nature in difficult times.  A woman upon entering her cards into the tank to purchase gasoline discovers that it does not work.  Multiple attempts yield the same result.  The next person in line bought her gas and suggested she pay it forward.  Hopefully, she did not use purposefully an expired card.  Still, any ulterior motives on her behalf did not cancel that man’s willingness and generosity to assist a woman in need.  Beyond his desire to buy gas as quickly as possible, he conceivably thought of her children whose lives would be adversely affected were their mother unable to buy gas.  Additionally, I recall people sharing food and drinks with each other.  Hardly anyone went inside to purchase snacks without offering to buy items for others in line.  Just as I hope I imparted encouragement and hope to that aspiring football player, I gleaned wide-ranging practical advice and spiritual wisdom as I listened to the myriad conversations of other people. Hearing their collective desire to endure the gas shortage and meet their personal and professional obligations in addition to helping someone else as occasion warrants renewed my hope. 

In the gas lines following Super Storm Sandy, I relived a valuable childhood lesson.  Hard times divulge the absolute worst in people.  Anyone with entrepreneurial and capitalist impulses immediately starts profiting from tragedy.  Who is weakest?  What is the maximum price of their desperation?  They would do it to me were the situation reverse.  These types of people will utilize any opportunity to profit and prey upon the most vulnerable citizens such as seniors and persons with disabilities.  However, the converse remains true.  Natural disasters also motivate the best tendencies within people.  Communities spontaneously form during times of crisis.  Enduring solutions to lingering problems ironically emerge as hardships greatly disrupt people’s daily routines.  Severe discomfort, agony, adversity and personal pain combine to create pathways to a better quality of life.  An analysis of the causes of the Breezy Point fire will result inevitably in innovative residential planning and zoning for twenty-first century living.  In addition to the physical destruction of property and scenery, Super Storm Sandy demolished outmoded paradigms of urban residential and commercial planning.  Federal government agencies and authorities will examine their disastrous results of their attempt to distribute free gasoline to the neediest citizens.  Next time, they will be able to avoid the dastardly schemes and ill-gotten propensities of citizens with entrenched character defects who only seek to profit from other people’s defenselessness.  More personally, natural devastation affords individuals small yet significant opportunities to rebuild by touching the lives of people whom they encounter.  A kind deed that seeks nothing in return and done anonymously potentially renews each recipient’s faith in God and humankind.