Waiting for a freight train...

If a person consistently stands on the railroad tracks and consistently gets hit by a freight train, does that make them slightly less intelligent than say, a person who has sense enough to check the train schedule to see when it would be wise to vacate the tracks? Or, perhaps, a person that knows the futility of standing on the tracks to begin with? It's an analogy. Dennis is the latest freight train. Every year at this time, certain areas get hit--and devastated--by a series of hurricanes. Lives are lost, homes destroyed. Millions and millions of dollars in damages occur. Livelihoods are disrupted. It is a sad and horrible thing to go through. So, why do people keep going through it? Do they think that nature is simply going to say "Oops! Pardon my path, I'll just move where there are no people." I don't understand it. Okay, so they have homes there. They have lived there for generations. Wouldn't the ongoing devastation over those same generations have taught them something? Of course, it is not any different than buying a lavish home on the side of a future mud-slide. It happens all the time. The rains come, the hills slide, there goes the neighborhood--literally. How about buying property on the San Andreas fault? It happens.

This is not about not caring for people and what happens to them. It's not about being cold-hearted. It's about common sense. There are so many common sense folk-sayings around. A stitich in time saves nine. If you play with matches, you're gonna get burned. It's not a good idea to play beside a hornet's nest. While folksy, they all have an element of solid wisdom. It's about skirting danger, flirting with disaster. I feel for people who go through loss. It's not pleasant and can be quite painful for all concerned.

But where is the common sense in staying in a place that is going to get slammed by a natural event? God holds us in the palm of His mighty hand. But, since He put nature into motion, is it then His fault that bad things happen to otherwise good people? What about trust in God, but tie your camel? That makes good sense to me. If there's going to be a flood, don't buy a house on the river. If you choose to do so, don't whine and complain every year when the same thing happens over and over again. I don't like watching the news during hurricane season. All those people upset because their homes are washed away, blown away. Complaining that aid and assistance is not getting to them fast enough. You knew it was coming. That train, barreling down the tracks, headed right for you. Just get out of the way, folks! It's nature, and nature happens year in and year out. Maybe it's not that easy to move, but it sure beats the alternative. As another old saying goes: Don't be surprised if you keep getting the same results when you keep doing the same thing. If you want to see a change, you have to change what you are doing.