California Spring Break (Day 4)
It's almost terrible that an event like this makes you question life and the fact that at any minute it can be taken away from you. It also points out that you really are not in control of the events happening around you, and your life is not in your own hands, but in fact, God's. And only He can decide when He will spare you of death or take life your away from you.
There is not much more I can say of this tragedy, except for it made me realize how fragile life really was. I sat there and stared in utter disbelief, wondering if in fact this was real, and if I was really witnessing these events.
I overheard a man talking on his cell phone to a friend of his. He was erratic, yelling obscenities, about the fact that the whole building was on fire. From his state of shock and bantering I learned he lived in the building, and all he owned was consumed by the flames. He was lost, not knowing where to go from there, and all that he had in the physical world was now gone forever. It made me want to let go of all possessions, because they are really just things that have no meaning once you cross over into the afterlife. It was sad to see someone in fear because a force had come against them and destroyed everything they had held to be true and real disappear in an instant.
This is one of those pictures that professional photographers always take, because they portray a human emotion that is only evoked through sadness or loss. We always question why when a tragedy occurs, they always take pictures of people crying. An event is always seen as more "real" once human emotion is involved, because then the image hits us on a personal level, and tugs at our hearts.
The fire died down, and the destruction was now visible. The fire had consumed the entire contents of the building and hollowed it out. It was completely unbelievable; that what once had existed is now gone forever, and there was no way of ever getting it back.