Here is another, where were you when...
Where were you when...
The Challenger exploded
The earthquake in San Francisco interrupted the World Series
The Wall came down
Desert Storm
Oklahoma City was scarred forever, on my mom's birthday
OJ walked
Columbine
9/11
Dale Earnhardt
The Columbia ignited before our very eyes
Katrina
And now...Aurora, Colorado
Please take a moment and say a prayer. A prayer for those who lost their lives and those who loved them and are in such unimaginable pain. For the amazing police, fire, medical and haz-mat personnel who made sure that everyone they could protect, were indeed safe. For those who will never be able to walk into a movie theater again out of fear. For the family of the one who cut so many lives short, I don't know how they will get through knowing this atrocity to humanity was caused by one of their own. For our society, some people are becoming immune to these kind of events - to the point of LOUD complaints when sports radio hosts choose to put baseball on the back burner for a morning. REALLY?? For healing...
PLEASE be sure to hug your kids and kiss your firefighters. This could happen anywhere, at anytime. Anyone of us could lose those we love to this kind of senseless tragedy. At the Fair, at the ballgame, at a school, at the movies. Say what you need to say and know that at anytime we may be called away for reasons only He can understand.
"If there's anything to take away from this tragedy it's the reminder that life is very fragile. Our time here is limited and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, it's not the trivial things, which so often consume us and our daily lives, ultimately it is how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another..."
~President Obama
I could care less where you stand politically, what he said should hit home for every one of us and serve as a reminder. There are no guarantees. NONE.
You are right. It is a reminder we all need because we have become calloused as a society as a whole. Truthfully, I can only place myself in small number of the tragedies you mentioned. Some I have only the vaguest memories of. Challenger....Desert Storm...the wall falling. I remember my parents attempting to explain what I saw on the TV in an age appropriate fashion.
ReplyDeleteBut a few of those....a few rocked me to my core.
Columbine, in particular. Sitting in another school only a few miles away on lockdown until it was identified it wasn't a district wide threat. Talk about something that changed the face of HS. And changed the carefreeness of youth. I had wanted to be a teacher in HS before all this- took me many years to come full circle and follow through with that original dream.
9/11 - only just getting over the sting of Columbine, finding myself walking to class in college and getting the news we were under attack...with professors trying to explain what we are watching on the news and what it could mean for our futures....
Katrina - having some of my youth in FL (particularly during hurricane Andrew) I knew firsthand exactly what they were up against. And boy did I feel for them.
SSS Fire - Nothing else has ever affected my life to the extent this did. Not even the births of my children.
It's always been my motto to be compassionate because you never know what cross another bears..
Good post!
Amber, the SSS fire, I can only imagine. We have had 3 5 alarm fires this summer and it is scary to see 125 FFs and just think. Luckily, the buildings were empty and we only had a defensive firefight on our hands.
DeleteThe Challenger exploded - I watched it in 5th grade, on the only TV in our building. Our teacher was in the running, it was scary to think it might have been her.
The earthquake in San Francisco interrupted the World Series - listening to the reports on the radio in the car on my way to the meeting for the city's travel league.
The Wall came down - my freshmen year of high school, probably the most eye opening world event. The world changed forever and ever, brick by brick. Helped develop my love of history as I begin to look into the Cold War - leading to my degree in History.
Desert Storm - I remember sitting with my parents - watching. The night vision was amazing. The radio stopped playing music and the idea of my friend's parents being deployed became very real and very scary.
Oklahoma City was scarred forever, on my mom's birthday - I was in the pub in college- playing pool, with the guy who would later cause a scene at my wedding - even though he was not invited. Think Friends in Low Places. I think of him with every mention of the bombing and I think of the bombing with my mom's b-day. The three are tied forever in my brain.
OJ walked The Big Screen TV was rolled in the Bossard Hall and the entire cafeteria erupted.
Columbine - I was a real grown up, in the northwoods of Wisconsin, with 36 inner-city middle school kids. I turned on the only TV before the kids came over to the lodge for breakfast and never looked at my kids, in general, the same. I started planning what I would do, how I would handle my babies in my care and my colleagues.
9/11 - we all know. The last bit of naivete, left my body. The world stopped when I got down from those bookshelves in the back of my classroom and running up to the office with 2 of my kids. Sitting down, literally in disbelief as we watched the 2nd plane.
Dale Earnhardt - we turned off the race, thinking, ehh just another accident and went to dinner with my dad - at Ponderosa. N was just a toddler
The Columbia ignited before our very eyes - were in Two Rivers with my in-laws. And I was back in 5th grade.
Katrina - in Georgetown, TX - taking a lot of heat for my name. My annoyance gave way to the pit in my stomach when I saw their worlds literally come rushing in.
And now...Aurora, Colorado - Peace and prayers for the families continue. I just can't imagine...