Talent, or lack there of

I have a personal "bucket list" of things that I would like to do while I can. Since Katrina, one of those things has been to help out in a disaster in a meaningful way. To be clear - I do not want a disaster to happen, at all, to anyone. But immediately after Katrina, I visited bizarely in concrete city, along with justsomeguy and TFry. The trip had been planned for awhile, so we were basically all meeting up (as we tend to do about every 6-8 months) to booze, laugh, dance in windows and see if bizarely whipped out an outfit that makes us all ask if she was having a Chico's kind of day.*

But then there was Katrina. We all arrived in Houston the Friday before Labor Day, as did some of the first people bussed from New Orleans. So we all put down our mimosas that morning and went to volunteer at one of the arenas that was operating as a shelter.

Our basic task as volunteers was to sort donated clothes in preparation for the arrival of people to the arena. We were happy to do this task. We also did some other things, putting water on the cots, getting together toothbrushes, etc. The medical professionals set up their station, various social services were there too. There were also groups of people there NOT helping, but just taking pictures of themselves in front of the chaos, presumably for us in publications about how they "helped."

And then the first bus full of people came in. These poor people - some of them were caked in mud (and the hurricane had hit days before - and we all know about that), kids clinging onto their parents, you could tell that they had been through alot by the time they came up to get some used clothes and maybe a smile.

Obviously the focus of the day was not (and still is not) 4 twenty somethings with a butt load of education and paying jobs. At the same time, I couldn't help but wonder what it might have been like to really help. To be a doctor or nurse who saves someone's life, or a musician who can go on a telethon and raise millions (along with other famous people). I felt like I couldn't give more that what I did on that day** - a bottle of water and an encouraging look, even though I had no idea what the future held for those people. And cash, I could give money to assistance funds.

Now with the earthquake in Haiti, I feel kind of the same way. I can only give money. I would like to help more. I wish I had a skill to do so.

I will continue to do pro bono work locally, but the next time that something like Katrina or Haiti happens, I want to get on a plane and really help. Although I hope that I never achieve this goal because there isn't something like this in the future.


*To be fair, bizarely does not dress like she shops at Chico's, or at least was not doing so in September 2005. She didn't start that kind of stuff until October 2009 when she interpreted "Ninja" (it was Halloween in Vegas) to involve cropped pants and high heeled mary janes. It was a far cry from ninjas circa 2002, which involved us in pleather pants from Wal-Mart.
** Now I have the legal knowledge to assist with obtaining insurance coverage for those affected (if they had insurance, which opens a can of worms, because that limits who you can help). In 2005, I could have helped with someone who had their DRAM chip design misappropriated or something along those lines. I was still a very baby lawyer and didn't even know about insurance recovery.