My poor neglected blog...I've not paid much attention to the blog for a couple of reasons. One, we were without Internet for almost two weeks, and two, I had to process everything that's happened in the last few weeks before I could write about it.
The tornado: First of all, Smitty and I were/are extremely lucky, and I fully recognize that, and by perhaps making light of my experience during the tornado, I do NOT take away from the tragedy of what happened. But I have to get it out, because making light or no, it scared the ever-living hell out of me, and I am so grateful we are okay.
We watched the storms progress through early afternoon in north Alabama and west Alabama, thinking we would most likely be fine, until towards the end of the afternoon. We watched, horrified, as a tornado literally formed onscreen in Cullman, Ala., and laid waste to their downtown area. Shaken by that, we still thought we probably wouldn't be directly affected until we saw the tornado headed toward Tuscaloosa.
I have never, ever, in my life seen something so terrifying outside of a movie. My sister lives in Tuscaloosa, and as I a. have no sense of direction to know where the thing was hitting and b. was hyperventilating at that point partially due to a., I freaked out. We watched, paralyzed, as the angriest, darkest, widest cloud of destruction cut a swath through downtown Tuscaloosa, and more hyperventilating ensued once I heard "and this funnel is headed directly toward Birmingham." I was able to find out my sister and her family were okay (thank you, Lord) right before we had to deploy our tornado plan.
The plan consisted of my getting in the bathtub in the master bathroom, while crying, mind you, and putting a comforter over my head while listening to the scariest radio weather report I've ever heard. Smitty went to the bathtub in the guest bathroom, and when he left the bathroom and we said our teary "I love yous," I kid you not, I thought I might never see him again. I cried and prayed and sang "Amazing Grace" in my head while it sounded like every tree in the yard was falling. I heard nothing but the radio and the noise of limbs, pine cones, etc...falling on the roof and in our yard. This lasted maybe 3 minutes and then it got quiet. I did exactly what Smitty told me not to do and came out of the bathroom before he came to get me and saw that the abject darkness had passed. So, I went to get him.
I won't go through the power outage and how we learned we should never been on any type of Survivor-type show together, because it's smug for me to complain about losing power for 30 hours when some people were left with nothing. I can honestly say with no sarcasm at all, that the experience changed me; I can't speak directly for Smitty, but I think it changed him, too. It's hard to focus on the things that tend to consume us when literally faced with God's reminder that, as my father-in-law says, "We are not in charge; we only think we're in charge."
It's so easy to complain, believe me, I know, but it's so much easier just to be thankful for the things in your life that are important: your family, your friends, all the love that surrounds you at all times..and focus on appreciating and making those areas better. The other stuff is the gravy, the peripheral, the Grey Poupon..the stuff you may want, but doesn't really sustain you. My Lord, I love my husband. Thank you for finding me worthy of him.
On a different note, due to our storm-induced cable outage, we also missed all of the Osama bin Laden hoopla. If not for Facebook, I wouldn't have known he was dead until that Monday morning. Apparently, I ruffled some feathers on Facebook when I posted, "Obama caught Osama. Sweet." First of all, I am aware that the military, in fact caught bin Laden, I am not a moron. Just because I don't go around sporting a yellow magnetic ribbon affixed to my car or know all the words to that song about putting a boot in somebody's ass who doesn't like America, doesn't mean that I don't support our military. In fact, I don't think they ever should've gone to Iraq...how's that for support?
Second of all, I'm pretty sure Bush supporters attributed the capture of Saddam Hussein at least in some part to Bush, even though Bush's military experience consisted of running away from the National Guard like a cross-country runner with his little satin shorts on fire, to the best of my recollection. I didn't/don't/and will never like George W. Bush, but even I gave him some props for catching Hussein...and I get snark and sass for being proud of the President for whom I voted being able to orchestrate catching the #1 criminal on the FBI's Most Wanted List.
Also, I would like to point out, had the military not initially retreated from the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan under Mr. Bush's regime in '02, we might've caught the guy then. Or, if we had not focused our military efforts in Iraq, which had no connection to the 9/11 attacks, it could've been a bit sooner than 2011. I'm just saying, you want to tell me Obama had nothing to do with catching Osama, neither did Bush, and it certainly wasn't for lack of trying to mess it up in the most colossal ways possible.
Finally, when did it become impossible to have civil debates about politics with even close acquaintances? Yes, I'm a Democrat, yes, I worked for John Kerry, and I voted for Obama, and I cried with joy when he was elected. However, I am capable of having a political discussion if it doesn't involve personal attacks, straw man arguments, and you actually know about what you're talking. Otherwise, it feels like I'm talking to children who argue by calling someone a "poopyhead" and calling it a day.
Also, and about this I'm so serious I had a dream I got into an argument with a really old man...since when does any party or person have a corner on the religion market? As far as I'm aware, Obama has never indicated not being a Christian, nor have any Democrats that have run for office in the past, oh, I dunno, 50 years, yet somehow there are these little digs at Obama about how he doesn't want to say "under God" or mention God. Did I miss a crazy Falwell manifesto? I'm a bleeding heart, yellow dog Democrat, and I am a Christian. I pray, I feel I have a good relationship with God that doesn't involve judgment and finger-pointing at others but love and acceptance and witnessing by being a good person, and I'm getting a little sick of hearing that I must be a Buddhist or agnostic or cat-worshiping nut, just because I don't go around wearing a "WWJD" t-shirt with my baptismal dress. Enough is a-freaking-nough. Elephants and/or Tea Partiers, whatever the deuce that is, don't own the Trinity, last time I checked.
"Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause."
Mahatma Gandhi
