Today's word is : REBUILD.
Life in Northwest Florida, or anywhere along the Atlantic or Gulf coast is familiar with the rebuilding after major storms. Among other travesties in 2020, Pensacola got hit with an unusual hurricane. " Sally" was NOT supposed to hit our area, but she took a sharp turn East at the last moment and stomped ashore near the Alabama Gulf Coast. Pensacola, sitting on the easterly side of the landfall, bore the brunt of the bad East winds.
Needless to say, there is much rebuilding of structures that still has to happen since Sally. Brian and I were fortunate that we sustained NO structural damage to our home , but many in our City & surrounding areas did not fare as well. A cursory drive around our Zip code will show homes in various stages of repair.
Shingle and fence loss are the two major re-buildings happening in our part of town. Homes and other structures in low-lying and coastal areas here in Pensacola sustained much more damage than Northeast Pensacola. " Sally's" constant rain caused more water damage than many people anticipated.
Collectively, we far Northwest Florida residents await the rebuilding of the Three-Mile Bridge that connects the spit of land that houses Gulf Breeze to Pensacola. Due to the negligence of the contracted company who had been building the bridge, several barges were set free. One of these wayward barges crashed into the bridge, tearing it apart. This severing of the main east-west artery to and from Highway 98 has proven miserable for people living in Gulf Breeze or Navarre & working in Pensacola. Thankfully, there are alternate routes to The 'Cola, but they require more miles added to daily commutes. It will be MONTHS until this bridge is rebuilt.
Perhaps the lesson of all the " storms" of Year 2020 { weather, pandemic, and the crap-storm that is the 2020 Election is simple Maybe God The Creator is using this messy year to guide humanity ito REBUILDING a better, kinder society in 2021 and beyond. Humanity has seen the worst in almost everything this year--- yet we are at the point where we can look towards rebuilding. 2020 revealed some brokenness in our culture--- brokenness that those of us born after 1970 never experienced. The pandemic also brought out humanity's more basic traits: individualism over collective good. People have died { and are still dying} from the storms brought about by the pandemic and the recent racial strife.
When the clock strikes midnight on December 31, life won't magically rebuild. We all will need to work together to rebuild our American way of life.
Amen.
Sarah
3 December 2020
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