I'm still trying to process the enormity of hurricane Katrina and its longterm effects on New Orleans, structurally, economically, psychically. While the loss of lives is horrible, I almost feel embarrassed that I am more overwhelmed by the loss of antiquities in the form of architecture, books, art, written histories, photographs, memorabilia. I realize these are all material objects, but they are fingerprints, if you will, of people who have gone before us. My brother who lives in Lake Charles, La. lost nearly everything in hurricane Rita. I haven't spoken to him yet, but I fear that some of our family history has been lost. I guess I am somehow tied to history. It is like a thread that connects me with a past I couldn't know otherwise. While people may live and die, the mark that they leave is seemingly permanent...until something like this erases it.