Broken things and healing scars

There comes a point in every adventure when you need a disaster to remind you of the good things. It adds perspective. 

I pulled into camp last night, hopped out of the car to hook up my power, and saw this. 

I had no reaction. No words. No tears. It was a Sunday night. Nothing to be done. 

Eventually I braced the break to take pressure off it so I could move around inside the trailer. Before I braced it, I took a long walk on the beach and thought about the mechanic that explained to me a few weeks ago what would happen if the tongue broke on the freeway. He said the front would drop and the back would keep going causing it to flip. The trailer break was to slow it down enough that you could get out of the way, that the trailer wouldn't run you over like a bowling ball. But it still might. The trailer would be destroyed. But hopefully no one would die.

I worried my trip might be over, but in light of that, I realized how much danger I had been in. I felt a little sorry for myself, but the saw an article online about the terrible Arizona fire happening at the same time, that had claimed the lives of 19 firemen in a matter of minutes. Many people lost their homes, but I saw no quotes where they felt more sorry for themselves than the people trying to save them. I watched the sunset over the ocean (I don't know how it did that on the East Coast).

In the morning, I started calling welders. I left four messages then went for a walk on the beach, waiting for a return call. After 45 minutes, I tried another number and got an answer right away from Dave. It started pouring rain, but within 20 minutes, the sky cleared and things started to dry off. When Dave arrived, he said, "oh, it's a clean break. That won't be a problem. I'll be able to fix it right here in a couple hours."

I watch Project Runway. This season, they designed clothes for women veterans.  One woman lost her leg below the knee and asked for a short dress to show off her prosthetic. She said she was proud to have served our country and didn't want to hide the injury. While Alice's wounds weren't so heroically gained, we can take a lesson from this soldier, that our scars represent not only what we've been through, but that we survived and keep going. 

We survived and we will keep going.