Talking the other day with a friend the subject of recent tornados and their effects came up, for some weird reason. Weird, because in Central California we don't often experience the kind of weather I was used to in Colorado and Michigan. But it was also weird because of the content of the conversation, or should I say, the reporting of a "fact" from a report about a tornado in, hmmm, Illinois, I think.
Other: "Did you hear about the tornado that struck the midwest yesterday?"
Me: "Nothing new there," quoth I, "'tis the season for such crazyness!"
Other: "Not like what I'm about to tell you." She said with some emphasis.
Me: "Well?"
Other: "A tornado hit a roller skating rink, PICKED UP THE ROOF, dropped it right on top of a mobile home park!"
After a second of silence, I must admit I laughed OUT LOUD at the proposterous idea that a tornado would be capable of such malice. Not able to resist I said...
"Is it just me, or do tornadoes have it in for mobile home parks?"
The other person laughed, too, not at the terrible tragedy, but at the seeming truth in that statement. It seemed to us both that wherever a tornado touched down a mobile home park was destroyed. I went on to suggest that maybe small wind storms grew up in mobile home parks and were so traumatized by that fact that they made every effort to destory them whenever and wherever possible. Now if you happen to live in one and are now offended, let me just say I have every right to say this, since my Mom and I lived in a mobile home park for one year back in 1977. Back to the story...
After this exchange I got to thinking about what we consider fact: if someone says it's true, we believe it. So, in my search for the truth of this story I discovered that, yes, a tornado had indeed collapsed the roof of a skating rink, but no, it had not picked it up and dropped it on a mobile home park. No evil was intended by the tornado, or so it seems, but the reporting of the story made it seem so.
But how often do we believe that events beyond our control do, in fact, have some intent behind them. If something good happens, well, it's luck, God's blessing, whatever. Bad things, of course carry the opposite idea and something inherently evil behind them. But I have found that good always follows bad, maybe LONG afterwards, but at some point good comes out of bad. In a tragedy, like a tornado, people pull together, help one another, drop long established gaurds around homes and hearts and rebuild.
Humor, not unlike what I attempted in my conversation with Other, is also part of the process of moving out of tragedy. I would never make light of someone elses misfortune, but the circumstances can be so overwhelming that to always view it seriously could make us constantly depressed.
Finally, if every cloud has a silver lining, every silver lining has a cloud. That's just life. Life is filled with moments of joy, beauty, peace, but also rife with the opposite. Thankfully, most of the clouds we experience are not life threatening, but can loom ominously overhead making us fret over the outcome. I say, bring 'em on, a blue sky without clouds gets boring after weeks and weeks. Storm clouds signal adventure, or at least the promise of adventure that will blow away with the wind.
So the next time you decide to put on your roller blades, check the sky and whatever you do stay away from mobile home parks!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
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