“Storms Bring Us Together”

Well the big Nor’easter hit yesterday, but it wasn’t as big as predicted, at least in our town which officially got about 7 inches; other neighboring towns got up to a foot. Nevertheless, it’s always interesting as you see the various reactions to the snow. It begins with the preparation…”get to the store… do we have enough half & half, get gas for the generator in case we lose power, get the cars off the main road so the snow plows can get by”. And then it begins…”it’s really coming down…listen to the wind… how much accumulation so far….hey, the plow just came by.” 

It’s actually a nice change of pace. There’s minimum politics in a snowstorm. 

When there’s a crisis…a snowstorm, sickness or even death, people seem to be more open to helping one another…..  “people tend to agree and cooperate more, as situations get more basic”. A good friend of mine, a decorated Marine, says in time of battle fellow Marines would lay down their lives for one another, but when back on leave, they would end up punching each other in the nose….hmmmmm. 

Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 reminds us that  “it’s better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting.” (Eccles. 7:2) … in other words, there’s less fights at a funeral than at a wedding. Serious issues, like life and death, can bring out the best in us.

Well, this is getting pretty deep… I was just talking about our snow storm and now we’re into “life and death”.  So, what’s the “take away here”? Well, it seems that “bad news or difficult news & challenges may often have a silver lining. Let’s not be too quick to wring our hands during our next “snowstorm”, but let’s look around and we may find some blessings…. a “silver lining”. 

One silver lining from this snow storm is that I didn’t do any shoveling. The picture above is my son-in-law Chris who joined my son Jon is clearing our drive way. At 74, I’m now able to play the “senior card” when it comes to shoveling the driveway…..hmmmmm.