It's Scary When It's Close to Home
You turn to shock when you first hear it. The bridge over the river has collapsed.

It's not just any bridge, at least for those of us who live in the Twin Cities. It's one we have driven across many, many times. There have been times when I have have crossed it several times a day going to or from the U of M or a meeting or to a class somewhere.

It's gone. It fell into the Mississippi River. In the midst of rush hour.

Cell phones became difficult to use as people called loved ones, just in case. Then you want to go home and hug your loved ones in person.

Then you sit and ponder, as one of the commentators said on our local TV coverage, the chaos and randomness of the whole thing. A minute more, a minute less and different people would have been hurt. Another day, another time, two weeks ago tomorrow, it could have been my wife and me as we crossed that bridge because we missed our exit turn.

It is beyond imagination. We just ramble and wonder. Even now the experts are trying to explain it. But it probably was unpredictable. Random. Explainable but unpredictable doesn't make sense. But it is what most of life is like. It is explainable only in retrospect.

But when it happens, and this is encouraging, the emergency systems worked like they should. Very professional and very efficient. We may not prevent disaster, but if we can at least respond to it when it happens, we can ease the extent of its impact.

Or so we hope.

Yes, I am rambling. As I write this sentence tt is still Wednesday evening and the reporters are searching for words. So am I. Give thanks it wasn't worse.

And it doesn't change at all the next morning. It's just a little more real, a little more normal. How quickly a disaster becomes normal. Will we ever remember what the bridge looked like at 6:00 pm instead of the twisted rubble of 6:06? Today the politicians are talking and saying all their usual lines. But it is not, at least yet, a political story. Give it time. Somebody will have to be blamed. Sen. Klobuchar said it several times this morning in the space of a few minutes- bridges in the United States don't just fal down.

Well, this one did. We are momentarily shaken. Our world is a little les secure. But we will get over it. Except inside. Each incident like this reminds us deep inside that we are mortal and that there are far too many things at work in this complex world than we can ever take into account.

Sounds like powerlessness to me. So, turn it over. Trust in your Higher Power to lead and guide and do what is necessary for you to do what is necessary.

And don't forget to be grateful. It's at the heart of life.