Friday, September 3, 2004

If You Ever Need to Know

Tom stuck his head in my office this afternoon and said, "If I'm ever in a situation like happened in Russia, just tell them to storm the building. I'd rather take the bullet than let terrorists get away with anything."

Its funny how we run these scenarios through our heads that never would have occurred to us a few years ago. First I think of them as "what if" situations and then it gets brought up by someone.

    "If your children were at Columbine would you have wanted them to say they were Christians?" [yes]

    "If you were in the towers would you have stayed behind to help someone in a wheel chair?" [yes]

    "If you had to choose between leaving one child behind and taking one to safety, would you do it?" [That's my question to myself after reading this morning about a Russian mother who was allowed to take only one child out of the school and left her 6 year old with her sister in law in the building. Answer: No. I'd stay with both children.]


Of course, none of us know what we'd do until we are put to the test. Those answers are what I hope I'd do. I'd want to be noble. I'd want to do the right thing. I sincerely pray none of us ever are put to that test. Its a sign of the times that these sorts of conversations go hand in hand with thoughts about refilling the 3/4 empty gas tank, "Just in case ... terrorists."

I used to play "what if" games like this after reading some of my favorite end-of-the-world books like Lucifer's Hammer or Alas Babylon. It was fun. I still love those books but I don't play that game any more. Its too real. I don't dwell on it because I suppose it still doesn't seem really real, but in the back of my mind "what if" comes and goes.

"Would you want them to storm the school if you were inside?" [yes]

No comments:

Post a Comment