Email: Rating Rita [JL]

Houston was blessed to have missed the bullet. Rita would have cost $40 billion they say (as large as Andrew) if it had not turned at the last moment and headed up the wooded Texas border. You can't imagine how happy everyone is that all the evacuation brouhaha proved to be just (literally) a dry run. Lessons learned!

It really is true that personal experience or a personal connection to the place of disaster makes it more palpable. Living in Minnesota, Andrew was a remote news story to me; as Christians, we sent help to the victims, but you don't understand until it's a place you've seen or called home. Empathy needs experience to become real. You respond differently about an Amber Alert after you have become a parent. Thank heaven for the times when compassion becomes more than clinical; God has "tender bowels of mercy," and I think it's right when we feel such a connectedness with others too.

My favorite season is autumn in Minnesota! Here in Houston, the temp is back to the high 90s again. Keep in mind that during my first full winter here, I mowed the lawn after pulling up the lawn lights after Christmas.