Abnormally Normal

Douglas Adams once shared an anecdote about a cab driver. Said driver always saw people in movies and on television getting into a cab and yelling, "Follow that cab!" Having never had anyone jump in his cab in over 20 years of driving convinced him that he was that cab. Mike Warnke once shared that weirdness is a relative state. For proof he offered first a view of his relatives, then that weird is only weird around normal people. A normal person hanging out with a group of weird people would be weird while the rest would be normal.

Two seemingly un-connectable concepts, but I will now show the connection. On the radio I heard someone discussing adult ADHD and saying that more and more people are being diagnosed with disorders and as a result the group of normal people is shrinking. More and more people are getting pills for things that previously we, or our parents, have just taken for granted. I don't take medicine, even most prescriptions my doctor gives me. I haven't seen a psychologist or psychiatrist and just suck up feelings of inadequacy, fear and doubts.

As the "normal" pool shrinks, I come to realize, I am that guy. I am a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, non-smoking, male with multiple pieces of parchment from institutions of higher learning. I see patterns and love circuitous stories, I am strongly devoted to my Lord, my wife, my family, my country and my job. No one has ever accused me of being "right" or of being "all there". Someone a few weeks back said they wished they could be in my head for just a few minutes. I replied that there are times I don't even want to be there.

If I am "normal" we're all in trouble. Hop on the bus with me. Be that person with me. Let's change the norm back.

Reset

Over the course of the last twenty years my wife and I have taken many trips. We have gone to a few weddings that were out-of-town, family reunions, trips to sick relatives, deliver something, or to drop off/pick up the kids. We've gotten to some destination spots like Washington DC, Orlando, Savannah, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Tombstone, or Victoria. We've taken some road trips including 8 different trips of greater than 2500 miles one way, by car mind you. The one thing we don't do a lot of is relax on trips. Typically our trips have been work related. My employer sent me to a conference, meeting, or training session and I was able to bring my wife and/or family along. Sometimes I stayed a little longer, sometimes we were only there for the length of the reason I was sent. Rarely have we had a time when we didn't have somewhere to be or something to do. This can be quite annoying at times.

Including our honeymoon (which after 19 years still isn't over yet) we may have had 6 trips with nothing planned. This trip we are currently on is one of those 6. At least now, upon our arrival to pick up my oldest children from their aunt and uncle, we had to take my middle child about 150 miles west to meet her church group. We drove for 6 hours then my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter and I went another 2.5 hours there and back. Other than that, no plans.

This morning I woke up and opened the balcony door to hear the Gulf while I read my Bible. It was drowned out to some extent by the sprinklers watering the grass. Then the tractor came by leveling the beach. Now the staff is preparing the pool for the day. Everything needs a reset. The pool, the beach, my family and me. It may be daily, it may be once in a blue moon, but never neglect the effect of getting a minute to reset, start over and recharge.

"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons." - Douglas Adams

Update: Is an updaet to a post called Reset a Re-Reset? Anyway, I didn't properly proof this one this morning, and was on my iPhone typing, so I only just fixed some of the glaring errors of this morning.

Band-aids for Life

 Originally I intended this post to be from my engineer perspective and talked about roads, but an easier analogy appeared. So, instead I have shifted my first argument to the end, making this 2 posts on the same subject.

Have you tried to buy a shower curtain in the last decade? With the recent exception of curved rods becoming popular in hotels, the supply has gone from solid rods with fixed supports at both ends to a spring-loaded, adjustable type that can quickly be adjusted to match any shower. The thing is, the spring-rod falls down from time to time. More accurate to say often. Sure you can install it quick and easy. Sure you can pick it up and replace it easy. It is much simpler then measuring, cutting the rod, screwing in the supports, then going back to the store for another rod because you measured once and cut twice. But how many times do you want to install a curtain rod? I only want to do it once. Or twice if one my children tries to do pull-ups on it and it breaks. Spring-rods need re-installing often, and a good number of the installs are done while you are showering. Still seem easier?

Oftentimes, it seems that we take a similar approach to our sins. It is easier to re-install the rod, ask forgiveness for the same sin, without really fixing the problem--that the rod/we fell. It is easier to slap a band-aid on the sin, or even on the forgiveness of the sin, then it is to change our lives, or do things differently. Our human nature means we will sin, but we don't have to keep committing the same sins again. We pave over our shortcomings in a temporary manner because it is easier, quicker, and who wants to get out the saw and do it right?

The Engineer's Anecdote to the same end:

As an engineer I have had numerous occasions during the 13 years I have lived in Alabama to work with and for the Alabama Department of Transportation. Yesterday I was riding down the interstate admiring the workmanship that ALDOT Contractors have done on the interstates of Alabama. Contrary to popular belief, the AL in ALDOT does not stand for Alabama, but rather Asphalt Laying. Asphalt seems to be the construction method of choice, and has for quite a number of decades.

Engineers at all levels argue the merits of asphalt and concrete, but most are committed to one choice over the other. Asphalt is cheaper, easier to construct and repair, even though it is thicker and needs to be replaced sooner. Concrete is more expensive, harder to construct and repair, but is thinner and lasts much longer. Pay now or pay later becomes the issue. Asphalt is pay later, concrete is pay now. Three of the four pieces of parchment with my name hanging on the wall from institutions of higher learning are in the field of civil engineering, specializing in transportation; I have for some time understood the difference between concrete and asphalt roads. I know which I prefer. I also have a firm grasp of the time value of money and know that the present value of money is less than the future value. Boiling that down: today's money is cheaper than tomorrow's money--concrete is worth the extra cost, IF done right.

Now, I am certain that the leadership of ALDOT which mandates maximum gift sizes for employees from contractors and consultants (used to be between $25 and $50), is in no way swayed by gifts. After all, that is why their size is mandated, it's a matter of ethics. The front office of ALDOT has (or had the last I knew) 2 of the biggest, fanciest, high-priced coffee makers you could ever imagine. These are provided by makers and providers of asphalt. The decision between asphalt and concrete is so one-sided it seems a joke in Alabama. The few areas of roads that were built of concrete in this state were built so poorly, or under-designed that it seems obvious to use asphalt to reconstruct. However, the standard is not uniformly applied. The poorly built or under-designed asphalt roads are simply repaired or replaced. A multi-colored quilt of potholes and patches abounds on many roads, especially the interstates of central Alabama.

The standard answer is that asphalt is cheap and easy to replace. This argument is similar to the shower curtain response.

Oftentimes, it seems that we take this approach to our sins. It is easier to slap some asphalt in a hole, ask forgiveness for the sin without really fixing the problem. Oh sure, we can come back later and overlay the whole road, cover it up, make it look good as new. It is easier to slap a band-aid on the sin, or on the forgiveness of the sin, then it is to change our lives, or do things differently. We pave over our shortcomings in a temporary manner because it is easier, quicker, and who wants to get out the saw and do it right? Concrete is liquid stone, when it sets whatever imperfections there are become set in stone. Good, bad or otherwise. It costs more, it's harder to install, but when it is finished, it lasts. Our human nature means we will sin, but we don't have to keep committing the same sins again. There is a choice, install the right surface, the right way and move on.

Update: Found a Bob Dylan quote that seems appropriate: "People seldom do what they believe in.  They do what is convenient, then repent." Love him or hate him, over his 50 year career Bob has said some things that are acutely accurate and cut to the chase true. When you can understand what he's singing.

Mess it up to clean it up?

It seems to me that the more passionate you are about something the more you should let it set before blogging in an attempt to not put your foot in your mouth. I've been stewing over this one three days. So nearly a month later and (in some places) the mess still sits. Why? Perhaps it isn't messy enough yet.

I read with interest an article yesterday about the City of Birmingham, who has yet to begin their wide-spread storm cleanup. The main sticky point is that Mayor William Bell does not want to hire the Corps of Engineer to do the cleanup as some others have. Both Bell and Councilman Johnathan Austin have issues with the Corps. Bell talked to Congressman Bennie Thompson from Mississippi who said that the Corps has a poor record of encouraging minority participation. Austin says that the Corps has no personal interest in what happens in the city.

Setting aside those two specific issues for just one moment, let's look at what could be. I believe it was Council President Roderick Royal who pointed out earlier in the meeting, if the Corps cleaned it up the cost to the city was 0% with a private company the cost was 15%. I believe the number is more like 10% w/Corps, 25% w/private company, but regardless while the total figure is unknown at this time, any idiot can figure out the 0 (or 10) percent of anything is less than 15 (or 25) percent of the same amount. One estimate I saw indicated that Jefferson County's costs could equal their sewer debt. Fifteen percent of that is still not chump change. Speaking of Jefferson County, they are using their own personnel to oversee the cleanup. Even that would be cheaper than paying a private firm to oversee it. Back to Birmingham, how many times in the last year have we had to hear about budget woes? The city is not made of money though it spends like it is.

Part of my disgust with this article is that the Corps lives in communities all around the state. They participate in civic functions, elections, and all kinds of activities. They are members of the community just like everyone else. Well, except maybe the politicians. The Corps people have volunteered to set aside their current workload to assist the special mission that this cleanup is. They get paid the same money they would if they remained in their own house, went to their regular job, did the same things after work, and lived their lives as if nothing had happened. Instead these workers volunteered to set aside their lives temporarily to work on an important project for their community or sometimes a community they don't live in.

Anyone who believes that it is a wiser decision to spend 2 and a half times as much to accomplish the same end doesn't run in the circles I do. That must be a different segment of the community. Seems to me those people have a disconnect and no personal interest (regardless of their job title) in the community. That screams of personal interest in the company being hired.

Mayor Bell has a past history with the firm he has chosen. He is unwisely spending the city's money by hiring them, and I hope that whatever amount he is putting in his pocket is worth it to him for selling out the city. And if he does not have an arrangement where he is getting money from the overpriced firm he did not have to hire for a job that he could have done for free or reduced rate then he is even dumber than that.

So why is it Bell found a congressman from Mississippi? His district is not adjacent to Alabama or the affected area. Thompson is over a district that includes the Delta area. You know the spot, where there is flooding in the rural area to keep from flooding the populated urban area. Just like the agreements made when the floodgates were built. So a Congressman from an area angry with the Corps for doing what they said they would do, intimates that the Corps has a bad track record. The Corps that is bound by the federal government to operate in a certain manner. Said manner being to encourage minority and small business participation. Why did Bell have to go so far for an opinion that mimics what he hoped to uncover? Same reason community-disconnected Austin throws out the unsubstantiated claim that people who volunteer to put their lives on hold to serve a capacity that assists other communities. It all boils down to what Ben Franklin said when he tried to justify why a self-proclaimed vegetarian ate meat: "So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do."

http://mobile.al.com/advbirm/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=OGfiBFH7&full=true#display

http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2011/05/birmingham_doesnt_need_to_chan.html

UPDATE 30 May 11: Governor Bently has talked with FEMA and convinced them to extend the deadline from 12 Jun to 12 Jul. This is a good thing, as counties and municipalities now have another month of government cleanup help. On a not so good note, someone at the federal level has decided that instead of paying 90% of the cost for those using federal cleanup resources and 75% for those using private, it will now pay for 90% of the cleanup regardless. Now the argument gets a little stickier, because the actual cost of the cleanup oversight comes into play. Once all the numbers have been revealed, we will all learn what our share cost us that went directly to Bell's buddies, because it will be more than what it cost to hire the Corps.

Camping on Heaven's Door

This morning I went to iTunes and bought Knocking on Heaven's Door, the Guns N Roses version not Bob Dylan's or Avril Lavigne's. The version I downloaded was by the original band members (before they kicked out Izzy) and was on the Days of Thunder Soundtrack. Now as much as I love Days of Thunder, and as many times as I saw it both in the theater and out, I never once heard the song in the movie. I did hear the Dylan version in Lethal Weapon 2, but that's not the point.

The point is, like most Dylan songs the remakes are as good or better than the original and this one is no exception. It speaks to the subject of the song as well as the musical era it was recorded in. While the song is on point, someone on the radio this morning played a clip of it thinking it funny in light of Harold Camping's apocalyptic prediction.

Camping proclaims to have uncovered the "key" to the Bible, and has mathematically described how The Flood was the first apocalypse and the exact number of years between Apocalypse 1 and Apocalypse Redux. It's elaborate and depends on counting years in both BC and AD, without any regard to the time period between Christ's birth and death (that one has long bugged me). He does take into account that there was no Year 0, which of course is why the 21st Century didn't start until 2001. Among other things he ignored is the fact that it was the 6th or 7th century before BC and AD were invented and that the calculator was anywhere from 4 to 400 years off, depending on whom you believe.

Another pesky fact that is overlooked is the fact that after Apocalypse 1 God said he wouldn't do it again. But why ignore the little verses?

There is no "key" to the Bible. It is a book to be taken in its whole, not split up, dissected and used in pieces to explain whatever happens to be the decision du jour at the time. The Bible is a work of literature, in fact it is THE work of literature. All other works of literature are based on the literary principles included in it. This is not to say that it is a work of fiction, but metaphors, parables, parallel concepts, allusions to past and future events are all used in literature because it was used in the Bible. But what Camping has done is to slice it up, read his own interpretation into it and come up with a date he believes will be the end of the world.

This degrades the integrity and character of not only Camping's work, but of all Christians. Here's a newsflash for you Harold, unless you take the Marshall Applewhite ticket, your mortgage comes due again next month. You do not know the date or time of the Rapture. You are not knocking on heaven's door, and it won't be answered according to your time frame.

Besides, the door is open. The path is narrow, but the door is always open.

Update:  Who doesn't like a C.S. Lewis quote,? This one works on many levels, but it at least works on this level.

"God, in the end, gives people what they most want, including freedom from himself. What could be more fair?"-CSLewis

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Cycling Water

As time puts distance between any event, people tend to lose interest. Particularly if the event did not affect them. In the instance of a natural disaster, the correlation seems to be decided by the factors of how big an area was impacted, how close to you it happened, and your relation to the people who were affected. For instance, a severe thunderstorm that blows down trees and destroys a single house has a long impact on those who live in the house, a lesser impact on those who live around the house, and normally not much impact on those who live across town that don't know the affected individuals. The area impacted was small, so it was of no consequence on a statewide level, unless it was the governor, or your mother.

While those far enough removed by geography or relations begin to forget, a bigger draw off your attention is the news media moving on to its next biggest story. The storms of 27 Apr 2011 are no exception. With the Royal Wedding being about as popular as soccer in America as well as over, the search was on for the next big thing, and attention is falling on the plight of te Mississippi River.

The 3rd largest watershed in the world has had more water then it normally handles. In a slow-moving drama, rivers and creeks have been swelling and straining both the natural and the man-made borders. A few weeks back, the Corps of Engineers decided to blow a levee up and flood farmland in order to save the town of Cairo, Illinois. While it is an easy choice, lives over land, there were a good number of people who took issue, like the flooded landowners. And I don't say this to mean they don't have a point or that it should minimize their loss. It is a devastating event for them, but it was the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Also, flooding farmland, while it comes at the cost of the planted crops, tends to make the land better for planting crops later. Now the media have moved downstream and the big reports are that the Corps of Engineers are planning to open some floodgates and send water from the Mississippi over farmland and down to the Atchafalaya River.

Now if I remember my lessons from geography, history and geology, rivers are fluid things. They tend to change their course from time to time. From geography I learned that they are not the best thing to use as a border, because when it changes its course there are questions about where the border is/was. In history I learned that Grant tried unsuccessfully to get the Corps of Engineers to reroute the Mississippi to cut the Gibraltar of the Confederacy off from the river. Then, some 60 years later the river moved itself, making the Vicksburg National Military Park not on the main channel of the river. From geology I learned that several decades back the Corps fought another battle, and this time won against the Muddy Mississippi.

The Mississippi was headed towards the Atchafalaya River Basin. This would have cut off the Port of New Orleans, a place with not only a significant history, but also a huge point of departure and arrival. This shift of the river would be costly, so instead the Corps kept it flowing in its banks. So now the Mississippi flows mostly in its banks and the Atchafalaya is a lengthy set of bridges between New Orleans and Lake Charles. The beauty of the irony here is that the Corps kept the water from flowing to the Atchafalaya to save New Orleans by building levees and floodways. Now, since the Corps (and everyone else) has lost confidence in the levees and floodways the Corps built around New Orleans, the Corps is using their levees and floodways to send water to the Atchafalaya to save New Orleans.

Water has come full circle, as well as gained the media spotlight.

The Bright Side of Destruction

The storms of last week still seem to dominate the attention of all in my neck of the woods. While I did not plan on having multiple posts linking the tornadoes of 27 Apr to Hurricane Katrina, I appear to be doing it once more. Yesterday I read a blurb that said Alabama had done in a week for tornado victims what it took six months to do after Katrina. This morning I read several articles and blogs that highlighted small wonders of the storm and aftermath. Small wonders are nice, but this is only the beginning of them. The tip of the iceberg if you're into clichés. Because it is still too early to see the bigger picture from this storm, I will share an example from my family and Katrina.

Prior to the hurricane, my cousin had a job in a casino restaurant. He had maxed out his pay scale and after a bad night when he had been given more responsibilities, the supervisor said he would never get another shot. So, basically he was as high as he could ever get, making as much as he could ever make. Not a bad thing, but no possibility for upward movement. His casino was devastated by the storm. When things got back to operating (not to normal mind you) he got a job at a land based restaurant, making more than he had been previously. He didn't like the place that much and took a job at Lowe's, making more money, where they were taking everything from the left side of the store and putting it on the right, and vice versa. After several nights of nothing to do and his boss telling him to just hide until his shift was over, he left that job. The next week he interviewed for a job with the first casino to reopen, and got another job, just like he had before, except this one: 1) paid more than Lowe's, 2)had upward mobility, which he was able to take, and 3) ended up being much closer to where he lived, which was very handy when gas prices spiked a few years later. He wasn't looking for better, but it found him.

Even the town I grew up in is better than it was pre-storm. One of my last employers was a municipality in Alabama that was founded by carpetbaggers in the early 1880s. It was 125 years old, and the state of its infrastructure was bad. Crumbling in spots. Biloxi was founded in 1699, way over twice as old (plus no carpetbaggers) and yet its infrastructure is much better shape. You get that when you have to rebuild the town every four to five decades, but that's not the point. Everything is better after the storm. You can't and don't see it while you're in it, but it is. It will be.

His is one of many stories I know. They contrast with what was lost, but taken as a whole, I do not know any person that went through Katrina that is not now in a much better place for it. Share your stories, you won't have to think hard. There is a bright side to destruction, it is Romans 8:28.

Related Articles

• After Alabama Tornadoes (John Archibald, Birmingham News)

Not Alabama's Katrina

This past Wednesday's storms in Alabama have become the most deadly tornadoes in Alabama's history. Over 250 confirmed dead, still over 500 unaccounted for in Tuscaloosa alone. Still at least 40,000 without power, expectations that some will be without power until next week. Power lines down, houses crushed, cars thrown about and missing, pets missing, loved ones gone, there is nothing good about what happened, yet.

But for all its destruction, the event was no Katrina. Locally the damage was equal, fatality-wise it greatly exceeded (more on a par with Camille), but there is one huge aspect that this storm does not share with the windy bitch. Katrina-type damage is not merely the widespread destruction of property, belongings, and deaths, but one where everyone is in the same exact boat. Tornadoes have the ability to cause destruction like hurricanes, but their path is minimized. Yes, it's odd to say that a mile wide path over 80 miles long is minimized, but when compared to the damage of a hurricane, it is. In the coverage of every tornado there are pictures, and at least one reporter who comments about how one side of the street was completely destroyed while the other side was untouched. For the most part, this storm did not leave many streets untouched, however, there remains people who are going about their normal lives as if it has not happened. Some went to work, some went on vacation, I live on a lake that had at least one fishing tournament on it. I saw the truck and trailers on my way to help someone without power and storm damage. Fast food restaurants were open, for lunch the couple I went to help provided hamburgers from Burger King (I was expecting canned spaghetti served cold). Normality has continued. Sure the talk at work centered on how people were, did you get damage, what are you doing to help? But the talk went on at work. At least 2 music and art festivals went on mere miles from areas under National Guard enforced curfews.

After Katrina, everyone was working, but no one was at work. Your house was damaged, your job location was damaged, the corner convenience store was damaged, the grocery store was damaged, Wal-Mart was damaged. Nothing escaped the storm, and even if it did, everyone was so busy picking up the pieces of their own lives that no one was expected to be at work as usual. The word normal took on a new meaning. Even if they had opened up, no one could deliver new products, no new food, no new gas. No one could buy a new designer suit and shoes from the cute boutique in downtown because even if there was still a road beneath the debris, there was no downtown.

Many would say that the events of this storm changed them and the way they feel about what God can do. I do not. My Katrina experience did. I know what God can do. It does not amaze me how temporary what we build is. This is not to say I am unawed by the destruction. This is not to say I am unmoved by the damage. All I am saying is that I finally realized the ephemeral, transitory nature of our impact on this world.

On 29 August 2005, I heard a man on the radio say, "It's worse than Camille." My first thought was, "No it's not. You do not know what you are talking about." As the day wore on and the destruction became more clear I conceded that the man, whether he knew it or not, was correct. This was not a matter that mere pictures or video could relay. It took standing on the ground, surrounded by 360 degrees of destruction for as far as the eye could see--even over the water--to truly grasp the enormity of it. It was/is this immersion in the power of the Almighty's hand in wiping out not only our fleeting attempts at change, but His own work of geology, geography, and botany that changed my outlook on all I see. That is what the phrase "like Katrina" means to me.

It is not a simple show of destructive force. It is not a simple swath of damage. It is a mind alternating, view changing, epiphany of a glimpse into the will of God. Strong words, for a strong adjective. Anything less would be like describing World War II as a disagreement between a few people. It would be like saying that someone knocked down the World Trade Center a few years ago. Accurate statements? Yes, but do they convey the depth of emotions or the complete range of actions? Never, not even close.

I was moved by Hurricane Katrina. I was changed in a way that I cannot be changed back. I no longer need to be reminded of God's destructive power because I carry a constant reminder. After being engulfed in Katrina I cannot look at anything the same again. Big events like storms, fires, floods, small events like recessions and political elections, even mundane events like a lone driver with a flat tire as I drive to work. The power of God, the opportunity for His will shine forth in everything after seeing the transitory nature of our best efforts. 

No, this was not Alabama's Katrina. Or was it? I can only hope.

Update: After Hurricane Katrina, the state of Alabama put into place a system whereby the official death toll of a natural disaster would not exceed the actual total as normally happens (and alluded to in my previous post). A doctor or medical examiner are the only people who can elevate the death toll, as a result many people were not counted until the day after the storms. When this post was first written, the death toll was over 250, as of the morning of 3 May, it is at 236. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It may be cliché, but it is still true. // <![CDATA[ var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24249479-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);</p> <p> (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); // ]]</p></div>

Tornadoes, Pop Tarts, and Canned Spaghetti

Yesterday, my home state experienced a bad weather day. Very bad. As of the time I am writing this, the fatality toll is well over a hundred, nearing a hundred-fifty. Oftentimes in such a wide-spread disaster event the death toll will rise and begin to fall as things are sorted out. This number is nowhere near a peak yet. None of my comments will be trying to make light of those deaths or the destruction. Remember that as you read. Among the reports I have heard yesterday and today have been comments of this having been a historic storm and eye witnesses who have said that they have never seen destruction on this scale. Every storm, whether natural or man-made is a historic storm. It will never be repeated, and should never be repeated. I chalk that one up to someone who is trying to use fifty-cent words to sound more intelligent. Some people think I do that, but those who talk to me on a regular basis know I write like I talk, and I talk like an arrogant prick who uses big words, only I use them because they are more precise. Because I can justify it proves the label, but I did not hold the words against the speaker.

The second statement, however is not so. To those who say that they have not seen destruction on this scale I say, you need to get out more. This is not a statement lightly made. I have witnessed first hand some destructive forces of nature. I was in Hurricane Frederic and Elena. My Katrina story is coming, but I was there to retrieve my mother, father, sister, and nephew 5 days after it hit. I saw things that no one ever imagined being destroyed that were destroyed. There is not one second where I would claim to have seen the most destruction or the worst destruction. What I have seen is enough damage and destruction to know what it is like to see it, experience it, be immersed in it, and to come out stronger because of it.

When a hurricane is coming, seasoned residents cut their grass the day before. The really seasoned ones have an ax in the attic. You just cannot tell when you may again be able to cut the grass after the storm so you cut it beforehand. During the storm you call everyone you know to check on them. The power goes out but the phone still works. You hang up with one person and call another. It is just what you do. It sounds dumb, but it is what you do. The first night after the storm, your whole neighborhood eats like a king. Steaks, chicken, pork chops, deer, vegetables, everything in the freezer is put on the grill. Ever had a moment when you could not give away a filet mignon? I have. Your neighbors eat like you because there is no power to keep it any longer. Again, it sounds dumb until you are in it, then it is just what you do.

The morning of 29 Aug 2005 I talked with my dad, my mom, my sister, my aunts, my uncles, my grandmother, my cousins, until about 10:30. The storm was well ashore, but it had not finished passing through Biloxi yet. After 10:30 I could only get my sister and the relatives that lived away from MS. Last I heard my parents' house had 4 feet of water in it. Then nothing. Everyone I called knew nothing. I talked to people I had not seen or heard from in 15 years. I kept everyone else informed, and started collecting water, food, tools, etc. for a relief run. Katrina hit on my sister's birthday, she was born 2 years and 2 days before me. Wednesday afternoon my dad called. I told him I was worried about him because of the 4 ft of water. He asked why, and I said, "Dad, Mom's only 5 feet tall." He said, "Whatever." Over the course of the next 2 hours I found out every one of my relatives was alive. It was the greatest birthday present I have ever received.

At that time, many people around me were incredulous that people stayed, that they were going to stay. I met a carload of people from New Orleans at our church shelter who had been wiped out three times by hurricanes and were anxious to get back home and clean up (I could only keep my parents in central Alabama for 3 days before they went back). No one seemed to understand it. I was interviewed by one of my local television stations down in Biloxi on the grounds of the Church of the Redeemer. While they filmed me, behind me was not the bell tower that had withstood Camille, Betsy, Elena, Georges, lighting, the War Between the States, etc. It was the foundation only. The bell lay amongst the ruins of the Camille memorial to the cameraman's right. I summed up all the emotion and the disbelief of others by telling the reporter: Come back and see what is here. It may be months, it may be years, but the same spirit that kept these people in their homes during this storm will rebuild this town. It will again be the jewel of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I have seen destruction. I have seen personal belongings destroyed. I understand the difference between seeing something and thinking, "Wow! What damage" and "How will I find my life, where will I sleep, what will I do." I do not take damage lightly, I do not take destruction flippantly. I have seen the highs and lows, I have lived the highs and lows.

Yesterdays events began early in the morning on my way to work. My town was hit with straight line winds around 6 am. Then the weather turned nice for 12 hours. Then the tornadoes came by.  After work I went to help a friend who had already re-found his totaled car and house from amongst the downed trees. Tonight after work I will look to find someone else I can help. Whether you live in Alabama or somewhere else, put aside your disbelief and wondering eyes and pitch in. Go help rebuild something even if you do not understand why someone would want to live there. In a trailer park, in the line where tornadoes blow, by a hurricane, earthquake or volcanically active area. And bring pop tarts and canned spaghetti. They taste great hot, but you can eat them cold; they clean up quick and they taste like fine dining after a day of sweating, cleaning, clearing, and getting to know the person whose house was destroyed, whose car was swept away. Connect with another human for the sake of no personal gain of your own. You will be amazed at what you will take away, and you will never again hear "historic storm" or "destruction on a scale like this" the same again.

Updated with a link I found on Twitter:

I like pictures 13, 9, 4, and 1 best. What about you?

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/tornadoes_kill_over_200.html

Updated Update:

Tomorrow my 12-year-old is going out to help others with the Illumin8 Leadership Team of 5th and 6th Graders of First Baptist Pell City. Now she's throwing out the gauntlet, too. Who's going to take that challenge?