:) Amazing Grace is probably the most beautiful, moving hymn ever written. I cry every time I hear it. We played it at my mother's funeral, and I suspect it's played at a LOT of funerals. :)
Okay, if I was misting up at hearing that the French Quarter is having a fire, and watching a Mississippi lady with three kids describe how she lost contact with her husband after the eye passed, well, now I've got full blown tears. :)
I'm not very poetic, but I'd like to offer a prayer:
"Oh Lord, please help those people. Please give strength to everyone involved in rebuilding the Gulf, to help them make the choices they will have to make about where they will rebuild their own lives, and to the whole nation as the effects are felt, for months and years to come. And thank you for the beauty and history that was New Orleans, and for the wonderful, friendly people all along the Gulf Coast. Amen."
(On our honeymoon, I dragged my Canadian husband on a road trip through the U.S.--we went south from Chicago to N.O., then drove through all the paths of Katrina's devastation. We camped in Biloxi, then continued on to Florida, to Sarasota so he could meet my grandfather. There are no friendlier people than Southerners).
*gets Kleenex* I have to log off to get my kids to bed. Take care everyone.
I suggest you try to find an 80s Statler Brothers version. It's the most beautiful version I've ever heard.
Thank you for your lovely post, and for your screen name.