What Do You Take?

As with everyone else who currently resides in Southern California, I have been thinking a lot about how I would respond to a disaster, such as the fires that have devoured hundreds of homes and changed radically thousands of live this past weekend.

Many are reflecting on the very important questions of why this sort of thing happens, what we can do, how to help those of our community that have suffered from these fires, etc. My school is putting together an effort to collect for those that lost everything some food, clothes, and necessities as they start the process of rebuilding and recovering. While I am praying for those that have been impacted by this recent blow in a season of hard knocks, I have become aware of a new thought that is germinating as a result of this most recent disaster.

I am in the midst of getting our new house put together. It is a long, costly process...what money we do make doesn't stay for long in the bank account; it is frittered away on light bulbs, and stair railings, plumbing issues, paint, furniture, etc. And to be fair, we spend to much money on stuff to makes it all easier; we are working on being good stewards of what we have. Our house is beginning to take shape, and I am finally enjoying coming home, enjoying sitting in my living room, enjoying walking up the stairs to bed, passing pictures of our family that now decorate our walls. Our house is becoming home.

And then, the fires come.

One of my professors used to say that people become Conservatives once they have stuff they want to conserve. I have been a Conservative since before I had stuff...but now that I have stuff, I DO want to conserve it. So fires, while always bad, now represent doom on a whole new scale. I have watched more avidly then before; and in the midst of fairly standard coverage of such a tragedy I resonated with some things I have not reflected on, in this way, before.

As with every disaster that dominates the headlines and impacts the society en masse, we are reminded that it can happen to us, our security is precarious, and we should plan for the future. Emergency plans, survival kits, insurance, etc.

All of which has prodded me to consider this question; if disaster were to come, what would I grab for in the rush of trying to get out of the way?

This isn't really a deep question; it amounts to little more than a variation of the game "Desert Island": what book would you take, what one tool, what one food, what one person, etc., if you were stuck on a desert island?

Assuming my family is safe, the important documents are in the car, and now I have a chance to grab one or two things...what do I pack up on the way out from the fire?

I think I will ammend the situation to allow for packing up a few small things into a box, and count that box as "one thing," though that may be cheating, its my game and I make the rules.

My first would be the pictures on the wall. I started to say some of my books, or new TV or something like that...but of course, those can actually be replaced...and if they can't, life will go on. I would generally be a better person if I watched less TV. But those pictures of my son and I at the Aquarium of the Pacific, my wife and I at our rehearsal dinner...those are the moments I want to hold on to.

My second is unfortunately my rotten computer. I hate to think of saving a computer...and maybe this will inspire me to transfer some of those things to a safer, easier to grab place, but my computer has my papers, my music, and hundreds of pictures that haven't made their way to the walls.

My heart is sad to think of my books burning and saving my rotten PC...but such is the age I live in. I need to get an external hard-drive, so I can throw that in the box of pictures and start picking up books...

What would you take?