"The wind was terrifying."
That is the first thing to say about our experience of the hurricane here in New Jersey. I am quoting a friend who started her sermon yesterday with those words. There were more faithful present than usual, not just because it was All Saints Day, or because the church had heat and light and many parishioners still did not, but also because it was good to be together with other humans in community. When you have experienced a hurricane, and the power is out in most of your city for a week, the city is dark and there is a 7 p.m. curfew and you hear sirens much more often throughout the night, it is good to be with other humans in daylight and warmth and familiarity.
Today, I returned to the classroom, at the university in New Jersey where I teach, for the first time since the storm. Classes were cancelled all last week, and just resumed today. Given the continuing lack of power in many places, the nearly complete destruction of public transportation infrastructure (which many students rely on to get to campus, as did I--not possible today), and the gas shortage, I did not expect to see a full classroom. But more than two thirds of my students were there, and I was very happy to see them. I think we all needed to feel like some part of our lives before the storm was coming back to something resembling our ordinary routine. And we spent a little time at the beginning of class talking about the storm, and the logistics of adjusting the syllabus and other matters due to the lost time. But the students did not want to spend much time talking about the storm. They wanted to get back to the subject matter of the course. So we did.
Still, it felt surreal. And just below the surface there is a lot of frustration and anxiety. There is another storm coming this week--students asked if they would close the university again. And there was an earthquake in New Jersey this morning--students mentioned this also (as in, "what is going on here?"). People talked about difficulties in getting gas, and how anxious they are about running out of gas. And being in the cold and the dark. So, "normal" is a long way off.
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