Lives In Progress

      Hoboken is largely underwater and lower Manhattan is dark as I write this in my also dark, cold, unelectrified house. I am developing a new appreciation for my fireplace, which is giving me warmth, a kind of comfort and hot coffee as the power outage stretches into day 4 and counting. My neighbor John who I've known since he was young kid, brings me firewood because I did not stock up. Here on Long Island, there are people dealing with much worse and I feel blessed just to have my home and family alive and safe, my house intact. People in Staten Island and elsewhere are devastated. And while most of us are riding this out taking care of ourselves, the National Guard is out there taking care of everybody they can reach. The Guard is rescuing the hard-to-rescue and bringing supplies to the isolated. This is the U.S. military, the men and women who move when the rest of us cannot and always do it in the spirit of service.     "There is no one that is not connected to the