This afternoon, as my parents were visiting, we sat down to watch a movie "Far and Away" a depiction of the famous land run into Oklahoma. With the recent devastation still on my mind, I wondered to myself if these settlers could even imagine what their claimed land held in store for them.
My stomach still churns at the the sense of helplessness I felt last week as the cable news channel showed the tornado plowing through my hometown, the helicopters swooping in with instant videos of the destruction. People were shocked as the improbable reality of a storm of such magnitude actually striking again, turned into a seemingly familiar resignation of gloom when what was left was nothing but rubble.
And the media descended into the chaos, asking the obvious questions - "Why do you continue to live in an area that poses so much risk? Most people's answers implied the same message...."Because it is what we know.....Because it's home."
Yes, it is home, but it is a tough land, with unforgiving summers, red clay dirt, fierce winds and reckless storms. These storms twist and tease, beating a path of destruction and spewing the lives and belongings of the victims back to the ground, then casually creeping into the dark cloud above it.
But these people who endure, whose families have histories far before the dust bowl, have never taken the easy path. Instead of shaking their fists at fate or the land that betrayed them, they get up another day, and although a little worse for wear, they move forward in the hopes that their tomorrow will be a brighter day.
After all, they are home.
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