“Money can’t buy me love.” (the Beattles)

And money can’t, by itself, show love. Yesterday my wife and I wrote a check for hurricane relief. It’s the right thing to do. Money is the best way (and perhaps only way) many of us can help. But I need to take a look at what the victims of Hurricane Katrina need that money can’t buy—like love.

I’d seen on TV the picture of a wheelchair holding one of the dead covered with a black and red sleeping bag and nearby a body covered with a white sheet. But the picture in this morning’s Oregonian was the same scene with Harry Connick, Jr., on one knee, head bowed, eyes closed, one hand on the wheelchair. I saw love and compassion that my check can’t deliver.