Pigs

In my "past life' as a Volunteer Coordinator/Retreat Director, I was in charge of the Annual Quilt Auction at Camp Ewalu. Part of this was having farmers donate hogs, then picking them up a couple of days before the auction and to take them to be processed.

Each year, I would hop in the 15 passenger van (no air conditioning or radio, btw), hook up the hog trailer, and pick up pigs.

During one of my trips to get pigs, I was on my way home from Jim Ludekings home, when I decided to call my brother who lives in New York. To my surprise, he sounded panicked. My parents had been out to visit him, and had gotten on a flight from NYC to come home. He asked me if I had heard anything from them. I told him no, and that they would call when their flight landed. He said "don't you have any idea what the hell is going on?" I didn't.

He proceeded to tell me. I remember having to pull the van over. I couldn't drive as Cory started to tell me the details of what was going on, and that he did know that their flight left that morning, but had no idea where they were. He told me about what the city was like at that time. He could see smoke from his office.

I hung up the phone  and got to camp as soon as I was able. Yes, I was lucky. My parents were fine. My brother was fine. My wife was fine. I was fine.

I do remember getting ready to head off to Traverse City Michigan (its where my parents flight landed), but then they were able to get a rental car and make it home.

This past Monday night I took a group of kids to the police station. The boys were most interested about the guns and other items that could cause harm. When we came home, I talked to my boys about how guns can hurt people. I told them, for the most part, we don't want to hurt people. We are called to forgive people who do us harm.

Tomorrow I will have a talk w/ Luke about how, yes, for the most part, we don't want to hurt other people. This is not one of those times. In this case, I am happy. This was a good thing.