Lessons Learned About Life Through Tragedy

On the same day, two different tragedies occurred and the juxtaposition of those two opposite events rang of one accord. They both taught the same lesson in two contrastingly different ways. One very harshly points out that life goes on. The other promisingly demonstrates that life goes on.

One day, a helicopter pilot woke up and had a cup of coffee. He had a flight that day and he was looking forward to it. The sad news about it was, that was going to be his last flight. In St. John the Baptist Parish, Lousiana, there is a highway that crosses Lake Pontchartrain and that’s where it happened. Flying above the Bonne Carré Spillway Bridge on the St. John Parish and St. Charles line, he was forced to put his helicopter down on I-10 eastbound at milepost 211.

The pilot lost his life and that is always a terrible tragedy. But sadly, the world is forced to keep moving forward. Some people do it without hesitation and some people move on with regret that they can’t take more time to properly acknowledge the tragedy they just witnessed. It’s a sad fact, but life does go on.

On that same very day, a man about six hundred miles away walked back into his house after tornadoes had just left a trail of devastation through his state and five others, the death toll still climbing. He looked around at what the tornadoes had done to his house. Debris was all over the place. Walls were knocked down. He didn’t even have a roof.

But, he did find something in the corner to ease his pain. He found his old piano still standing. Beaten by the storm, it wasn’t the perfect pitch. But perfect to his ears, he sat down and began to play.

Jordan Baize may have lost his home, but his family was safe. That’s all that mattered to him at the time. He could move on knowing that stuff can be replaced, but the lives of the people he cared about can’t. It wasn’t the end of the world. So, there was his piano and it was calling his name. The song he played?

“There’s Something About That Name” by Gloria Gaither and Willam J. Gaither…

The post Lessons Learned About Life Through Tragedy appeared first on Michael Allen.