Waiting for & Waiting Out Hurricane Sandy is Like Beckett's Waiting For Godot

We have kept our appointment and that’s an end to that.
We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much? 
–SAMUEL BECKETT, Waiting for Godot

Hurricane Sandy has been talked about for days now, the whole east coast of the United States was gripped with far and anticipation.  At 7 pm last night all the trains stopped working in NYC. At around  9PM  all buses stopped, and it seems like for once all the hustle and bustle of the city was calmed. But it, the outward and eerie stillness , said nothing about the anxiety and angst that many of us in the City felt as the storm came slowly ever so deliberately to the Big Apple.

So while many of us are used to waiting: waiting for a bus, for a train tat never comes, for the price of a metro card to decrease, waiting for the mayor Bloomberg to eventually vacate his office and stop inventing new terms, all of the city’s denizens were treated to a new kind of waiting, waiting for destruction and doom. And so far Hurricane Sandy has fulfilled on her promise.

Parts of Brooklyn  & Lower Manhattan Underwater

 

Why are we here, that is the question.
And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. 
Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come.
–SAMUEL BECKETT, Waiting for Godot

We are all waiting to see what this storm will do to the city . There are other cities affected and some people have died already from electrocution and from downed trees. Perhaps because I have a dark sense of humor but i find it funny when as soon as  roads start to flood and large tree branches snap in the wind, everyone remembers that there is such a thing called Nature and it just so happens to be so powerful. For centuries we have worked with the idea that nature was simply a treasure trove of resources to be used at our disposal and whim. Actually thanks to global warming and climate change the Arctic is now accessible and right now while  there are record droughts and ecological devastation companies and nations everywhere are gearing up to stake their claim to drill for oil, plunder resources and destroy what may be one of the last almost pristine environments.  It says a lot that this is what it takes, moments like this, for us to stop and reflect on what really matters and ascertain to what extent do we contribute to our own or someone else’s pain.

We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) 
No, don’t protest, we are bored to death, there’s no denying it. Good.
A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste …
In an instant all will vanish and we’ll be alone once more,
in the midst of nothingness!
–SAMUEL BECKETT, Waiting for Godot

We are always in a state of waiting, waiting for something to happen, waiting for something to stop, what for our lives to end etc

I wonder what are you waiting for?

 

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