Tornado Hits Kirksville

(image provided by Kirksville Daily Express)

Since Enoch is taking a "sick day" from Church this morning, I thought it would be appropriate to take a few moments and reflect on the tornado that roared through the north end of town this past Wednesday. To be honest, though, it is difficult to know what exactly to say. After all, normalcy has been restored: rats have been run on the treadmill; experiments have been carried out and performed; the lawn has been mowed; groceries have been purchased; and Enoch continues to struggle in transitioning from diapers to the toilet.

The feeling that prevailed Wednesday evening while walking through the ravaged neighborhood and seeing rooftops dismantled and laying in the neighboring fields was an overwhelming sense of insignificance! For me, it brought back feelings of 9/11. Though the destruction is different in etiology, the sense that my security had not only been jeopardized but attacked was very similar. Whether orchestrated by man or Mother Nature, to consider that at any one moment the world in which we have carefully constructed for ourselves and family could be gone -- in an instant -- is a reality that I do not wish to entertain in excessive amounts! Small doses, if I must.

Yes, life is both precarious and fragile! I vividly recall the events of 9/11. Particularly, I recall walking from the clinic to the hospital and wondering what (and who) was next. Were there any other sites in NYC that were under target? If the terrorists involved in the hijack of the planes were of Palestinian origin, was this attack on America retaliation for our support of Israel? If so, then how safe was I really working at a Jewish hospital in NYC that bears the name of Palestine's enemy (i.e., Beth Israel Medical Center)? As I was entertaining these questions in my mind, a distinct feeling came over me. It was a feeling that proffered peace and security, the very mainstays that were now under attack! The feeling was very clear and left no room for misinterpretation: that whatever happened (or was going to happen) I would make it out alive! What an incredible feeling that was to have received such an assurance as this! To consider that my life, insignificant as it is, was not only going to be protected but that it was worth protecting! This was a very humbling realization, indeed!

You will have to forgive me for reverting back to 9/11, but the emotional aftermath of the tornado is very similar. In an instant, in a matter of moments, everything we have known and worked so hard to build can be lost, destroyed, damaged . . . completely annihilated! However, the inner peace that comes from knowing that you are known by something greater than yourself is not for the taking. Rather, it is a gift from heaven above! If nothing else, the events of last week -- like the attacks of 9/11 -- have reminded me of this reality: that though my life is insignificant, it is still of interest to the God in heaven!