This is a bit anti-climactic, as by now people all over the US and beyond know that Colorado Springs is facing a very dangerous fire. In a single day it went from having consumed 1 structure to having consumed more than 100, covering 5000 acres to covering much more than 15000. In fact, at the moment over 30,000 people have been evacuated and more are being evacuated today. Our house and Laura's parents (our permanent address) are located just across the freeway (I-25) from the Air Force Academy air field, which is a staging area for the air support for the fire fighting efforts. So far, we have not been asked to evacuate or been told we are in a "pre-evacuation zone." (What a concept, eh?) Everyone living across the freeway from us has been evacuated, however, including our local place of worship, WVC.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about what it means to settle someplace, and particularly here in Colorado Springs. As this wildfire has become so dangerous, it reminds me of other disasters we have faced in community.
In Taiwan, that included the 7.9 quake "921" in 1999, as well as various typhoons. It also included, less directly, the missile launches offshore by the world's biggest country at the time of our arrival in 1996, the year Taiwan first directly elected a president. (It has happened every 4 years since!) Then there was SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and to a lesser extent, the bird flu.
Community disasters are marked by the sense that not just one, but everyone, in the community is in danger of death or deep loss. Since we all face danger and disaster in our own way, this both draws us together but also deeply separates us. We stimulate each other's sense of trauma by sharing our stories, displaying our fears, and generally getting wound up in all our various ways. At the same time, we also care for one another, stand alongside (or run alongside) one another, and share in the facing of an overwhelming communal challenge.
When you are an outsider in a community, this is often a time to leave. But when you are settling in the community, this is a time when we may show our solidarity and belonging by staying, with the hope of eventually flourishing again, or even flourishing more than ever before, tested and strengthened by the challenges we have suffered.
So at the moment, we are "okay," only threatened, not destroyed, but very much feeling the challenge and grief of our community as this disaster, the Waldo Canyon Fire, continues to unfold. We remember where we were when the plume of smoke first went up (north Union, headed to La Casita for a birthday meal), and where we were when the dense smoke and fearsome fires erupted on the front slope yesterday, as houses burned one after another (preparing to go to a small group, only to receive there one of our group as they evacuated under emergency conditions and police orders.).
Please remember us as we join in this community, face this challenge, and adjust our expectations as the world around us changes. Meanwhile, we face some other challenges as we seek to come alongside our coworkers in some of the most challenging places in our world, far away from here, but much in the news in recent times. Since these are places that are not part of our personal history, including the sixth largest country in the world, there is much to learn, both as to history and to current realities, as well as the personal journeys of people living there by choice with eternal goals. Please remember us in this as well. Perhaps the things we are facing here will help us in better coming alongside people in these other places.
Yours in the one who keeps us, no matter the challenge or the opportunity, Steve and Laura
PS I think you understand that some places in the world are of great value, but publicizing names is sometimes counterproductive. That's why we make references like the one above that may be a bit puzzling, but are not misleading.
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187, 800 343-3144
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>
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