One Woman s View: Storm brings aggravation, humility
by By JANE E. VAJNAR
Contributing writer
A tired riddle from my childhood went, "Where was Moses when the lights went out?" The answer, of course, was, "In the dark." Many Kansas residents found out all about that during the recent ice storm, which is still a major topic of conversation around here.
The storm generated several topics for meditation and discourse. Mainly, I needed a whole new complaint vocabulary. Without getting into genuine curse words, I did not know any terms to fully express my frustration and disgust. I was fortunate enough not to have many downed tree branches. One of my neighbors had her roof caved in by a falling limb. I did notice lots of limbs down around the shed I sold a few months ago. "Whoopee!" I thought, "No longer my problem."
The second aggravation was the terribly treacherous ice on the roads and under foot. I was imprisoned in my house for five full days, which seemed more like five weeks. Even when I can look out on a Currier and Ives world, I do not deal well with that kind of isolation. Of course, other people (some of them older than I am) were coming and going. However, I did not think it advisable for a klutz who fell four times in the perfectly dry weather between Thanksgiving and Christmas to try walking or driving on a cut-rate ice rink.
That cloud also had a silver lining. A very kind neighbor brought me some groceries and picked up my mail. My kitchen faucet chose that moment to fall apart. The man I hired to install a new one got out in that nasty weather to purchase a faucet and put it in. Have you noticed that in times of hardship the brightest spots are nearly always people?
After the said five days conditions were only slightly improved, but I evolved an escape strategy. I put ice cleats on my boots and used what I called my patented Alpine ski pole. My husband had used a long rod with a sharp point on the end to pick up cans he collected from the roadsides. I carried it with me and jabbed it into the ice at every tiny step. I may have looked like a dork, but I was free!
Compared to communities farther south, Tampa was fortunate in regard to the power failures. Our electricity was off three times, but for six hours or less each time — not long enough to spoil the food in our freezers or result in serious frostbite. The longest stretch came on the first day I was leaving my house, so I was able to hang out with neighbors who had a different power source until I had heat in my house. Once again, kind people made the difference.
Considering that most people have had electricity for only about a century, a mere tick of the clock in all of human history, it is amazing how helpless we are without it. Whenever the power is off for a considerable length of time, I always find myself thinking, "Well, I can't watch television, so I'll just use this time to
I can think of very little positive to say about the ice storm. However, it may have taught us some valuable life lessons. First of all, I was reminded to appreciate some of the blessings I normally take for granted like warmth, light and the freedom to come and go, to say nothing of friends who always stand ready to help.
Second, I gave some thought to elderly or disabled people who are confined to their homes all the time, as I was for only five days. I need to try to be more thoughtful about brightening their lives with a visit, note or phone call.
The third lesson of the storm is simply that we are not in control. Most of the time we cling to the illusion that we are handling our lives and shaping our destiny. Then along comes a tornado, fire or ice storm, and we soon learn the error of that notion. Perhaps God allows such disasters occasionally to teach us some humility.
For some time to come I'm sure you all will remember where you were when the lights went out. Try also to remember some of the lessons of the storm.
