It is now two weeks and a day after the Joplin tornado and I'm finally starting to write about it. Today is my first day back to work. I'll be back filling some details and information. I was hoping to start this sooner, but it's been hard to get back into a routine amidst all the turmoil.
As I drove in to work on my motorcycle (it's been a while since I've been able to ride) I saw a bird flopping on the road about a block from the office. I dropped off my bike and told my wife ( we share an office space) that I was going to steal her car to go pick up the bird in a box to see if I could help it. I really didn't have a choice. It seems from one minute to the next I go from numb to the verge of tears; that every minute hangs on one obsessive task being completed after another, no matter how small or low priority, it becomes the highest priority.
And my highest priority was saving that bird. I grabbed a file box and drove back. I didn't seen the bird at first so I parked and walked around. After finding nothing and assuming that it had flopped itself into the tall grass somewhere I started driving back.
That's when I saw it on the road where someone decided to end it's life with a tire.
I can't know whether it was malice or sympathy with which it's life was ended, but it tore at me more than it normally would have. As of last night the death count rose to 141. We lost three more people yesterday who succumbed to their wounds after two weeks. At this point, it feels like every death is a needless death, even a dying birds death. There could have been a more respectable death than under a tire.
I hope I can get back to life soon. It feels like it has been permanently paused for the last two weeks with no sign of "normal" ever returning.
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