How often do you lie to your friends or loved ones? I'll bet it's more than you are willing to admit. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, but the fact is that in this life, you often have to be cruel to be kind. Protecting other people's feelings, most times, doesn't do anything but make situations worse.   I've had close friends lie to me and I can always tell when they do. Maybe it's coming from a good place but it just angers me and feels like they are hiding something.  

You may know that we have had a house in Paradise (Key West) for 20 years and some have even rented it.  It is a small house on a nice street with many neighborly people.  Cayce dubbed it the Klein Cottage and may have been our last visitor.  I am writing this last Sunday morning as Irma is making land fall in Paradise as a Category 4 hurricane with 120 MPH winds and an anticipated accompanying sea surge.  I fear the worst and will know the verdict when you read this. 

As I tore myself away from CNN to write this blog, a zipper across the screen reported that power would be restored in eastern Florida by this weekend and in western Florida by September 22nd. I reflected. That's about the length of time that it took to restore electricity to our home after Sandy. Empathy. "The capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another's position." Being empathic is easier when we have lived through similar circumstances.

I knew if I wrote a blog about HRC, that it would be potentally polarizing. She brings up a lot of strong feelings in people. My reason for writing the blog becomes, then, more appropriate. I want to write about not caring what people think of me.

  We have family and friends in Florida.  We have family and friends in Texas.    

  We have family and friends in Florida.  We have family and friends in Texas.    

In the past, I would have followed the reporting of hurricanes, earthquakes etc. with a sense of empathy but, admittedly, also with a bit of apathy. In this world in which we are immediately connected to world events through the internet, it is easy to become a bit emotionally detached from world events.  

Last week I wrote of possibly starting over, technology-wise.   This week, an update of sorts.   Wednesday after attending a funeral for the dad of a friend with whom I play basketball, I powered up my phone and found an alert from the Manhasset Apple Store.