Perspective

It had been a pretty bad storm.  Lots of lightning.  One bolt close enough to startle a building full of people at work.  Then I got a text: "Are you coming home soon?"  Pretty normal words on most days, but that particular text, shrouded in it's unemotional font on my phone screen, failed to express the gravity of the situation.  I sent a text back, jokingly..."Is my house burning?"  No response.  I dismissed it and went on about my business as the rain outside subsided.

A few minutes later, my phone rang.  The voice on the other end was cracking with fright and confusion.  "When are you coming home?!!"  It was that unmistakable tone and sense of urgency that nobody ever wants to hear.  Its the moment you know that something very, very bad has happened.  My heart leapt and vision became narrowed as I inquired further. "Please...come home quickly!  The firemen are cutting a hole in the side of your house with axes and there's smoke!  I heard something during the storm.   I don't know what's happening..."  The voice trailed off...a mixture of hysteria and sadness.

The 15 minute ride home was a tough one.  There's the need to resist pressing the accelerator to the floor, which could endanger myself and others not to mention attracting the unwanted attention of state troopers.  All sorts of visions are going through my mind.  Charred remains.  Where do I sleep?  Insurance.  Rebuilding.  All my things.  I had 15 minutes to come to terms and accept that everything could be gone.  All of it.

All the grappling with the everyday clutter of others must have had an effect on me.  I felt relatively calm.  Relatively.  The idea of having nothing was oddly...intriguing.  I had always thought about what it might be like to live life with not much more than what was on my back.  But this wasn't the way I wanted to explore that intrigue.

As I got closer to home I scanned the horizon for a dark pall of smoke that would likely indicate a building consumed by flames in the distance.  There was none.  But as I turned the corner to my street, I felt anxiety wash over me.  Three fire trucks....not good.  The neighbors gathered outside in a ring...the indignity of it isn't something I want to experience again.  The last light of day was waning and thankfully I saw no tongues of orange leaping from the roof.  I rushed up to one of the firefighters who explained that there had been a fire in the wall caused by lightning.  The fire melted the water pipe joints and they had to shut off the water to keep the house from flooding.  He wanted to show me what had happened.

As I opened from door I remember the acrid smell of burnt insulation, plastic pipes and wood but the house seemed intact.  In the hazy flashlight beam I could see the ceiling in the bath pulled down to check for flame, lots of water from the burst pipe and some charred areas on the wall, but everything else was intact and undamaged.  With electric and water off, I decided to sleep elsewhere. As I left, I opened all the windows...and sighed.  Deeply.  Daylight revealed that a bolt of lightning punched through the house and grounded at the copper pipes, causing a fire in the wall that was probably extinguished when the pipe burst.  Damage was confined to the bathroom.  I never imagined I'd be thankful for a burst pipe and that I wasn't home for the event.

In the moments between the phone call and the aftermath, there was a lot to be reckoned with.  I don't recall that I freaked out.  There was a period of clarity.  Perspective, if you will.  As I steeled myself for the worst, I thought "It's just stuff.  I'll go on. I'm OK if it's all gone."  Events like this have the power to alter the direction of one's life.  It could be the impetus to relocate or perhaps change how life is lived.  I've written plenty about how the pursuit of things over experiences can dull life's shine.  I still believe that...even more so now.  In essence, I passed my own pop quiz.  If you were faced with the possibility of losing every material thing you owned, how do you think it would affect you?  The answers might say a lot about how material things figure in your life.  Hopefully, a frantic call won't be required to find those answers.