Heavy Weather

Standing among the wreckage of lives twisted, torn apart, and destroyed by a tornado is a sobering affair. On the counter, in a kitchen that no longer exists, rests a cell-phone. A copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, tethered to a VCR in the distance—by its strip of magnetic entrails—lies face up on the ground. In the garage rest two luxury cars. Their roofs fashionably absent, save the twisted, dancing, metal frames from which their tops were divorced. Wading knee-deep through scattered debris—the discolored and frayed family photographs with the smiling faces of children before the heavy weather—my spirit is compelled by the remnants of these stories going cold.

Walking amidst the township, I am reminded of Dan Rather's farewell newscast on the CBS Evening News, "...and to all who have suffered natural disasters, and must now find the will to rebuild; to the oppressed and to those whose lot it is to struggle in financial hardship or in failing health; to my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all; and to each of you, Courage."

Staring into the eyes of each person I spoke with and photographed, who embraced my hand in salutation, I felt keenly aware of Rather's charge. There was a daring nature about them. Choosing their own adventure, rather than being consumed by it. An emboldened sense of being that, despite the heavy weather, convinced me the people of Monson, MA would persevere.

—casjr—