Tragedy

Many of you may have heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech. This struck me the way most monumental tragedies do, however a bit different. This is now the second time a major tragedy has struck in a state I used to live in. Now in neither case did I know anyone presently attending the school but I have known people who did in the past. When Columbine happend it really struck me because I used to live in Colorado, had been past Columbine many times and knew people who went there years before. One thing that was interesting is Columbine was not an inner city school. It is a suburban school in the area parents strive to live in so their kids can have a good safe school experience.

I have been to Blacksburg, Virginia. Its a nice little Southern town in the hills of Appalachia. Looks like a Norman Rockwell kind of place. Not a place you would expect tragedy to strike.

Maybe we should all move to the South side of Chicago to keep our kids (not that I have any) safe.

Anyway, back on track, it hits me how fragile we are and how it can all be over so quickly. Even in the safety of suburbia or smalltown America.

I want to share another story that may sound dumb but gripped me much the same way. It was way back in 1993. I was 21 (wow I am old). My mom and I were in the middle of Utah way out in the desert in a town called Salina. Its not much but there are hundreds of miles of desert in every direction so by the time you get there, its paradise.

At the truck stop just off I-70 (Its a shell now, used to be a chevron) Its the one with the big statue of the african dude if you have been there. Anyway, as I walked in, I saw the paper. The front page story was about a whole family tragically killed in a car accident. It had a picture of the smashed car on the front. Apparently the person driving fell asleep and car rolled. It was a family with kids. They were all killed. Happens every day right. Well yeah but as I walked around I noticed the police impound lot was right there. For some reason I was drawn to a car. I recognized the car from the paper. I looked inside. I saw pillows, blankets, a water jug, fast food trash, clothing, stuff that belonged to these people. The car looked very lived in. Knowing these people were dead made this creepy. Here I was looking into the lives of people. Looking at stuff that if it could talk would have witnessed the last breath of a family and heard their dying screams. It haunted me so much. I felt like I knew these people. Where did they go when they died? Did it hurt. Having been in a nearly fatal accident and knowing. Not thinking but knowing without a doubt I would be dead in a few seconds, I wonder. Did they feel what I felt?

Anyway, in my case, God miraculously saved me and my only injury was lower back problems. I should have been a human biscuit. I will share that at another time. It was many years ago.

Anyway, this tragedy at Virginia Tech made me remember Columbine and that weird day in Utah. When tragedy strikes and you somehow intersect it with at a different time. It could have been you. It could have been me.

Will I be alive tommorrow? I assume yes, but do we ever know?

A week ago monday a golf ball hit my windshield. For a few seconds, I thought I had been shot and I stopped and examined myself for holes that werent there previously. I realized it was a golfball and it shattered the windshield. If that golfball had hit me in the head instead, I would be in the same boat as these Virginia Tech students.

Just something to think.