And another one approaches.  Just when you think that the typhoons are through terrorizing our island, you get slammed with another one.  With winds of up to 100mph, you know that if not catastrophic, this will at least be devastating.  As a boy who has grown up on this island, I am no stranger to tropical depressions, tropical storms, typhoons, and whatever else may have you.  And truth be told, it's not the aftermath of the storm that I dread the most.  Truth is, I really dread having to wait in the dark during the storm, because there's really nothing to do.  You don't really feel like playing cards when there's winds that are threatening to blow down your door, and you can't really talk to anyone on the phone for much too long because your mom and brother are on the side cleaning some water off the living room floor.  What is there really to do during a storm?  I don't see much that there is to keep your time occupied besides sleep and clean, and I already a lot of that done when the weather is perfect! 

You know what the best part of typhoons are, though?  When the storm is all done throwing things around and flooding our island with rain water, the funnest part comes out when its time to assess and repair.  Oddly enough, I live for the first moment that you open your front door after the storm to see the damages.  Maybe its the thrill of seeing what had happened to your yard, or your neighbor's yard, or anyone's yard for that matter.  Maybe its the huge rush you get when you see things like street lamps that really shouldn't be anywhere other than a street light post, like a library roof or hanging out of the gym wall.  Or maybe its the feeling you get knowing that in a few days, the house will be all straightened out and all you'll really have to do is sit around and wait for your power and water to come back on...in about two months or so.  Those times, although extremely inconvenient, emphasize what Guam is really about--family.  When there is no power or running water or any of life's current taken-for-granted conveniences, you're forced to sit back and rely on other forms of entertainment to keep you occupied.  No television, no internet, no radio; just the dim light of a candle in the middle of your kitchen counter and a deck of cards.  And of course cards aren't all that fun to play without other players, so naturally you call on your familly.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I'm getting at.  The quality time that you spend with those that you normally don't see all that much during regular daily life becomes more abundant, and the bonds that once were there during your childhood are, if not restrengthened, then at least refreshed.  The casual conversation about anything and everything, the constant laughter shared between one another, the long-forgotten latent jokes that only your family knows; all of these aspects contribute to a spectacular time that you would not have had if things like storms and power and water outages did not occur.  There's something special about having to fetch water from the pier in order to flush your toilet, and for some reason or other, I cannot help but imagine what it must be like for the Amish communities that must produce manual labor on a daily basis in order to maintain their society and the bonds that they creat in the process of doing so.  Their family ties and values must be incredibly strong, unbreakable even during the worst of times.  Don't underestimate the goodness that comes when you spend time with your family because it is this goodness that will sustain you not only throughout the rest of the storm's aftermath, but throughout the rest of your life. 

This thought of mine has lead me to wonder why, in today's world, is it only during the most trying of times do we pull together as a family and a community?  Why must it take the worst things to happen before we realize what was there all along?  Why do we not "know what we've got until its gone?"  This is tragic, to say the least.  In small family units, when the children have all grown up and establish seperate and independant lives for themselves, it is common to see in the American culture very little contact with one another.  As soon as one of their parents die, however, everyone gets together for the funeral plans and start to spend more time with one another.  When a eulogy is read, they say the best things about a person, but does it really matter when they're dead?  In a novel entitled "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom, he tells a story of a young man who has befriended one of his college professors during his undergraduate studies.  As time passed and he had graduated from college, he still remained in contact with his old professor, dropping by from time to time to see how he was doing.  One on of his visits, the professor had told him that he wanted to have a "living funeral," one in which the eulogy was read while the professor was still alive and capable of hearing what others think of him.  Please do not think this is vain.  This man was simply seeking the truth of others and how they view him.  I thought that this was an incredible idea, although I may not do it.  This just goes to show that we wait far too long to tell people how much we love them and how much we appreciate all that they do for us.  Good lesson learned.

And in bigger communites, like the entire United States of America.  "United We Stand" was the phrase coined for the tragic 9/11 eventa that happened in 2001.   It is just too bad that we stand united only when tragedy hits home.  Why did it have to take for Osama bin Laden and his Al Quaida terrorist group to crash into the World Trade Center for us to finally take up an American flag and fly it proudly?  Why did it take 1000+ lives before we embraced one another and told them how we feel?  Why did it take such tragic events for us to realize that we are a community, we are a country, we are a nation, and not a bunch of individuals who were just coincidently born in the same area?  These unfortunate facts exist among us whether we like it or not.  Hopefully, it will not take another Pearl Harbor, another 9/11, or another death in the family before we realize who we are as a whole and who we love as individuals.