Red Water - Recovering Duluth

Duluth had whopper rains mid-week and substantial flooding in many places. Many of the roads are still blocked off due to the road being swept away or broken into many chunks. Zoo animals died and many people's basements, including the UWS library in the lower level, where underwater. Water can be thought as cleansing but in this case the water would have had such a mix of things carried with it. A golf course near our house has a little stream normally about 2 feet wide and maybe 1 foot deep it was about 40 feet wide and 9 ' of rushing water. Streets were like river beds. Portions of railroad track support were washed away. With the hills of Duluth and many rivers it all flows down into Lake Superior which has still been looking red. I've seen it red in November storms from wave action but this was red with mud, etc. carried into it. This Flood of 2012 will be remembered. Projects are underway to cleanup at the zoo, Jay Cooke State Park, and many other places. It was quite unbelievable to see the volume of water come through and the aftermath.
How to tie this to dulcimers? I'll use Red and Water. Every day I do appreciate what we all too often take for granted - the earth. We wouldn't be getting any dulcimers / wood from trees - if it were not for some basic processes. Somewhere at some time trees grew that were used to make our dulcimers. The tree probably even stood for 30, 40, or 50-plus years. On our laps we can enjoy the beauty of the wood, hold it, feel it, and yes make sound from a special "box" made from it. Wood is pretty amazing. As Duluth has collections of wood debris washed down from tree limbs ripped from the force of water, or as we have driftwood on our beach on Park Point - wood has a story and come from a place. It also has character and beauty and yes, can be made into beautiful things that make beautiful sounds.