Sound crazy right? Why would anyone WANT to experience a hurricane if they didn't have to.
Well stay with me on this one.
I am a Corporate Keynote Speaker and Comedy Magician that travels a lot...all over the world in fact (yeah I know; brag, brag, brag) and I was out of the country when Irma came barreling across central Florida where I live.
Where my family lives.
Where they were when Irma arrived while I was safe and sound on-board a luxury cruise ship where I was performing!
Now I know that me being there wouldn't have made one bit of difference in what happened (thankfully for us not much; power outage for 3 days and minimal damages to the house). But the idea that my family may have been in danger and I was helpless to do anything about it was killing me!.
I know that being there would have made my wife feel a little bit safer (it's not like I'm Iron Man and could defend us all..) and I could comfort my kids when things got really scary.
I could've made them laugh, distracted them and assured them that "everything will be alright" (even though I really didn't know that for sure...but it's what we do right?)
This was all playing in my mind while being glued to the news channel on the ship watching the reports of the rain, winds and devastation in South Florida. Knowing that Irma was heading North and I was unable to be there for my family when they needed it.
This was especially significant because one of my friends experienced the same thing during Hurricane Harvey the week before. Plus another friend lost his significant other suddenly while he was away in Estonia working.
So yeah, not being there for my family when they needed me was driving me right to downtown "Guiltsville, USA".
Right now it looks like there may be another one on it's way. I intend to be with my family for this one...we just may not be in central Florida when it comes!
Hey I may be crazy but I'm not stupid.