Friday

The bridge collapse in Minnesota has really been dominating my thoughts for the last couple of days.

Whenever something tragic happens I get glued to the news coverage, but this seems different to me. I grew up close to Minneapolis. Many people I went to high school with have gravitated toward that area since graduation; lots of Brad's family lives in the area. We've talked to most of the people who know who live there, but part of me keeps expecting to get a phone call about someone being on the bridge.

What hooks me the most are the stories of people who seem to have cheated fate--the school bus of kids, the people who were just about to cross or just getting over the bridge, the people who could have so easily had a different ending that day. I can't imagine how that kind of "re-do" has to change the way one lives life.

"He who knows no hardships will no now hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with strong mixture of troubles.
-----Harry Emerson Fosdick