Mississippi's Morning After

brings out the best because you're not reduced to helplessness by bureaucrats

Meanwhile, back in Hattiesburg, the heat is grotesque and there are people doing wonderful things for each other. People getting food out to the needy, people giving free ice to people who need ice, the manager at the Wendy's sending out free burgers to the police officers directing traffic. The post-hurricane quotidian is so far the opposite of New Orleans: the ridiculous conditions are bringing out the best, not the worst, in the natives. I say "so far" advisedly and with considerable hope. Today the word is we're looking at two to four weeks without power and who knows what will happen. I'm gearing up for a long camping trip. That's what it's like here now - camping, enforced camping, required camping, the kind of camping from which you couldn't go home early if you wanted to.