Tornado

So I am not going to post any horrific images of damaged houses and cars, or anything like that. CNN and the others have plenty of them. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts.

I don't really stop to think about the damage caused by these monstrous storms. It is always kind of like an out of sight, out of mind attitude. But I started wondering about the things that can never be replaced. Thankfully, none of the people in my life were injured or killed. Only a few lost their homes. A few others had minor damage or trees lost.

But what about the things that cannot be replaced. We as humans tend to attach significant value based on the history of objects or places. Think about all the emotional attachment that was lost, not because the thing can't be replaced, but because it will never be the thing they grew up with.

Maybe I am just getting sentimental, but I hurt for the ones that dealing with losses. Maybe they have lost loved ones. At last count I heard, the Chattanooga area had 27 deaths and that number was expected to climb. Numerous others lost all their worldly possessions. Some of those lost the home they grew up in or the tree where their their children played.

I am sharing these pictures not because they do justice to the damage, but because I think it illustrates my point. This tree had been standing for decades. Certainly before I was ever born. Now it is just on the ground, waiting to be cut up and hauled away. I was not wanting to make these into pictures of me, but somehow the first two didn't convey the massiveness of this tree. Those of you that have had the chance to see me in real life know that I am not exactly the smallest person. But check out how dwarfed I am next to this behemoth... The root ball pulled up out of the ground was easily 9 feet tall.