What the Heck was I Thinking!?

I have refrained from posting on the catastrophe that hurricane Katrina wreaked on Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana until now. I’ve had a couple of thoughts that stick in my head or that reappear regularly as I watch TV coverage, though, so I thought I’d put them on the blog.

On the second day of the calamity, as New Orleans and the surrounding area flooded, I watched people looting. I don’t mean the people who were looking for things to help them feed or clothe themselves and their dependents. I mean those taking expensive items that would be of no use to their survival in the disaster - jewelry, TVs, those kinds of things. I mentioned to my wife that I wonder if the looters understood what they were doing - they couldn’t use the loot where they were, and would have to leave it; they couldn’t take it with them when they were forced to evacuate; and all they had done was show everyone around them what kind of character they had.

Those ideas caused me to think and, eventually to write this. I don’t think the hurricane and the destruction is something done by God to man. I do believe that (in biblical terms) this calamity presents us all with an opportunity to show God and our fellow man what our true nature is. Will we help our fellow human? Millions are doing so in every way conceiveable. Will we hoarde what we have to keep only ourselves alive at the risk of sickness and death of others? Will we care for the weak, the infirm, and the children - those without enough to take care of themselves or with nothing at all?

I know that I will see my own true self exposed under these conditions. What will I, my family and friends think of me as a result?

Under stress people revert to type - what type am I?