Texas Flood
I lived in Boston, Massachusetts in 2015. April 15th of that year, on Monday, there was a terrorist event at the finish line of the marathon. For those of you who have not lived in Boston, Marathon Monday is a day off of work for everyone who has not trained to find a personal pain cave. I will always love and respect the city of Boston for respecting athletes who want to run a few miles. On this particular day, a couple of assholes thought it would be a good idea to destroy that idea. Fact for them, you can't destroy honesty, the truth or any idea they had in their small minds.
What did happen was something immediate and important. Two pressure cookers filled with screws and metal objects were placed in city garbage cans on Boylston Street. I was at home. I had napped off in the mid-afternoon while watching the marathon. In any event, if you are over the age of 10, you know the story. But the part of the story I am about to tell you, there is complete certainty that you do not.
I worked as an Art Director at Hill Holliday. For most, that name is inconsequential. For others, it is the backbone of Boston and creativity as an occupation. On Tuesday morning, Mike Sheehan told me something to do right away. Mike was the president of the agency at the time, and although I talked to Mike often, he never gave me a directive. He said, "We are going to fix this problem". "I need you to work with James and we and going to make Boston Strong. That's the line. That's from Jack."
Jack Connor started Hill Holliday. If it came from Jack, it was the truth. I can't explain it in any other way, because Jack was smarter and more experienced than any of us. I still think that it was a gift to be asked to come talk to him in his office, which was across town. I won't get into that as it is a whole other story. The point is, Jack came up with Boston Strong. We can get into all kinds of things about how that happened or what he meant, but timing is everything. And at the moments after the bombing and the whole week when the city was shut down, Boston, the people of Boston needed to be stronger than ever. This is also the strongest city America has ever known. The confluence of timing and empathy with a purpose that was completely Boston will never be erased from my human experience.
Jack knew how to lead and provide an answer to a question that was unfathomable for a city. West Texas is in a similar jumble of questions. How? Why? What can we do? And a feeling of helplessness is a fact. Hill country has and is experiencing the unimaginable right now. Something has happened with the flood that is out of everyone's control. What we can do is come together. Support each other. Care for each other. And maybe we can just feel human again and care for our friends, our neighbors, and our strangers in a time of need.
Out of a lack of a better idea of what to do, Texas Hill Country Strong is about how I can be strong for the families and friends who need support right now. There is no way to fix this random event of the flooding through the hill country of Texas on July 4th, 2025. But what I can do is communicate that this situation is not lost. Hill country affects all of us in SW Texas. If you would like to help in some way to out neighbors who are grieving at this time, you can help.
Check this link for the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.
Or if you want to spread the awareness for this crisis, and donate as well, we have made some gear that you can purchase, and all profits go directly to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund. You can find that under our Texas Hill Country section.
