Kansas seems to have a magical tinge associated with it. Or maybe not magical per se, but there is something there that seems to spark… well, something.
It could have something to do with Clark Kent growing up there after the meteor shower (mm… and by Clark Kent I specifically mean Tom Welling being extremely hot); or maybe it had to do with Dorothy taking flight into the magical land of Oz and leaving Kansas behind. Or perhaps it’s simpler and it has to do with the state being the belly button of the country– smack-dab in the center, and far from the oceans, flat and extreme in weather and a place often associated with the frontier to my beloved and much-missed Wild West.
Maybe it’s imagining the bison herds or the enormity of the sunflowers as they raise their heads up to the sky.
Maybe it’s the discovery that Dennis the Menace –a tornado in his own right– was supposed to be from Wichita (according to the omniscient Wikipedia).
Or maybe, just maybe, it’s all that damn wind.
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I’ve never been in stronger than, say, 20 mph wind. I know that I could also insert a couple of tasteless jokes about wind here for comic relief, but it seems kinda tacky. So my schoolmarm takes over and we go to Wikipedia. So when I read up on "F5 tornado" and realize not just the sheer power of the wind but its destruction capabilities, I don’t even know how to quantify or qualify any of that information in my mind. A tornado blows through Kansas and I guess I just don’t get it.
It didn’t hit me until I saw a fellow blogger’s pictures of the devastation. The devastation of her own home, and her town, and her place of work… everything gone.
Everything. Gone.
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I am not sure what else to say– the stories and the photos are so much more compelling than any maudlin rendition I could ever deliver. But in the midst of all this chaos and pain, it’s strangely if eerily reassuring to read stories of looting and arrests. and of course, stories revealing that the aid might be slow in coming because most of the supplies are over in Iraq. I guess that even if the roof has blown off your house and your roof is lying quietly on what used to be your front yard, you’re still human. A great big wind cannot change human nature, though it would be nice to be able to blow away cowardice, avarice and sheer incompetence along with a strong gust.
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France has a new president.
President Bush makes another misstep and the press have a field day.
We lose more of our boys in yet another deadly day in Iraq.
Paris Hilton is going to jail!!!
And Lindsay Lohan fails to live up to my expectations of her (boo hoo)
Another day, another tragedy. And a few joys, too.
Especially the Paris one.
A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm! 
I’ve stood in a 65 MPH wind. For fun, no less. I was stationed in my youth on the USS Forrestal (CV-59), and the carrier wold often end up pointed into the wind as it cruised along at 30 knots, providing the opportunity to stretch my arms out and lean forward over the bow as far as I could without falling into the ocean 100 feet below. Yeah, really cool.
I’m happy about Paris too, for some odd reason. I think I’ll walk into work bragging about it or something.
Thank you for the link.
I used to think that if we got hit with a tornado, i would be devestated to lose my things. But now that it is a reality, the things don’t bother me at all.
Oh, and I hope none of you have to ever experience the 205 mph winds we went through… Not fun.