Trials and Tribulations

July 13

I am thankful for trials and tribulations. I know, nobody wishes for them, but they help define who we are. They are God's way of saying, don't take things for granted, don't stay stuck in a rut, and when things get disrupted from your everyday routine and disaster occurs, get up off your booty, get to work, and make things better. I am amazed at the way people come together to help others in need. With all the disappointing things that I've learned to expect of people in general, it is perhaps the one overiding goodness that I see in my fellow man. That certainly restores my faith in humanity.

Several years ago, my son John told me about this broken glass he saw on the median of Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge and asked me to photograph it. It was a complete car window pane which had been shattered, presumably from an automobile accident. I got this as well as several other photos. John used the idea for the title of his band Lucid Soule's CD A Crack in the Glass. I use this photo to represent trials and tribulations.

Another photo, shown below, has been published on this web site but I have not really mentioned what it was before. A year after Hurricane Katrina devasted New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, my family was returning from a vacation in Florida and decided to take a ride along the beach road of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We came upon this near Gulfport, Mississippi. It is what was left standing of a Waffle House. The sign was also still intact but nothing else was except for the foundation and these barstools. It struck me as symbolic for the resiliance of people to get through trials and tribulations. Much still needs to be done but New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast are on their way to recovery from that horrible disaster.

July 13b

trials and tribulations

i know the term “trials and tribulations”

is cliché, trite, and so much overused

but there is nothing trite about suffering

so perhaps for this i can be excused

the suffering and disasters

that are played upon unwary mankind

are a rallying cry for others

to come to the aid of those so maligned.

© rt tulley