Humpty Dumpty

I've decided that there are two types of people in the world and you'll know which type you are simply by answering the question "when you are going to the basement because a storm is coming what do you  take with you or what would you have taken with you if you could have?"  Not considering the third answer of "I'm not thinking about taking anything but me and my family" for the sake of this particular blog, the other two answers are going to be something like "wallet, cell phone, check book, car keys" or "photographs and heirlooms".

My husband is of the "wallet, cell phone" ilk while I fall firmly into the "photographs and heirlooms" category.  So many many people lost everything in the devastating tornadoes across the Southeast this week, none hit harder than our own state.  Whole communities vanished in to thin air like a wave that washes up on the sand only to ebb back into itself and the sea.  The tales of destruction and survival are incredible.   The pictures on television remind me of a sci fi movie where the BOMB has been dropped and civilization as we know it has ceased to exist. I half keep expecting giant ants or spiders to come crawling across the TV screen, impervious to man's guns or rockets and looking to make a meal off the first living creature that falls in its path when they show parts of Tuscaloosa that used to be and is no more.  Now please don't hear me and think that I am trying to make light of the devastation for that is not my intent.  All I am saying is that unless you actually go through what those poor people did in places like Pratt City, Tuscaloosa, Cordova and Cullman I just don't think we who are safe in our own well-shingled houses with electricity and hot water could ever truly grasp what it means to lose every physical possession that one owns.  And I hope to God that I don't ever truly understand.

Hence, the thoughts about what I would take with me to the relative safety of my basement, or even further underground, to our downstairs bathroom, if I only had a few moments to gather up that which I didn't want to lose to the claws of a tornado.  When it passed over Trussville this past Wednesday and we were spared I took nothing with me except for 8 of our neighbors who had no basement to run to.  It was only later that Larry shared with me about taking his wallet, cell phone, etc... and I shared that I had thought about taking pictures downstairs with me but that was all, just a thought.  I can replace a wallet, a cell phone, car keys, the roof to my house, a car, a check book.  Even those who lost these things will eventually do the same.  However, it is for their photographs for which I grieve for them the most.  Those cherished little momentos that mean absolutely nothing to most anyone else, but the very world to some mother, some daddy, some grandparent.  My heart breaks for them now even though most probably haven't even had something as mundane as a photograph cross their mind while they are in the fight of their life just trying to get a roof over their head.  But I've been thinking about it for them and it makes me so sad because this is a loss that no All State or State Farm can replace.

If I was a magician I would snap my fingers and begin photographing every child who was affected by this terrible storm and begin a new collection of pictures for the families who have none.  Children have relatively short attention spans and someone with a camera would produce smiles that would never detect the hurts and shock from the past Wednesday.  If I was a magician I would produce photos to make any mother proud.  Unfortunately I'm no magician and it would take a thousand photographers with a thousand cameras to get the job done. But maybe I can help one. Or maybe even two.  I know that this is such a small small thing in the grand scheme of things but they say that it takes a village to raise a child and right now the village has gone the way of Humpty Dumpty.  If I could help to spackle over just one of Humpty Dumpty's broken parts...could I make some mother smile again?