Sometimes we have no idea how much heat it takes to bring to surface that which lies beneath. We travel along life's highways and think all is well. Unbeknown-est to the unsuspecting world lurks a heat that is slowly cooking on under that which is seemingly solid ground. Unlike the proverbial frog, that's eventually found floating on the top of the simmering pot, that's no longer able to hop out--lifeless--some things explode in anguish. It's similar to the tolerant and temperate who finally take all they can take of the pick, pick, pick, poke, poke, poke. This weekend that slow cooking proved fatal to a two-lane strip of roadway on Lawton's east side. The continual beams of invisible heat streamed forth on Lee Boulevard until it had enough. The concrete buckled and the earth moved--erupting into a big mass of impassable roadway.
My weather station said it was 103 degrees in Lawton this weekend. (It's hard to believe it was that cool; it felt much hotter. At one point last week it was 107.) The road buckled so badly that they had to bring out repair crews to fix it on a Saturday. Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say? The entire two lanes of Lee Blvd. looked like a giant mole had burrowed beneath it and left a 12-inch high hill. In order to pass into Lawton and get to Taco Bell, one had to drive on the shoulder of the road. When I snapped the picture I couldn't help but wonder how many other places had a similar explosion of pavement. That night on the evening news, they reported two other streets in Lawton that faced similar fates.
This illustrates to me how lax we can become sometimes in life. We'd all pretty well gotten use to the heat. We just cranked up our AC and hit the water-parks. As much as was possible, we who owned vehicles with air-conditioning, traveled over that strip of road as if it were 68 degrees outside. We basically didn't much notice what was going on beneath the surface of our tires. We didn't much care. We just took for granted it would always be there. We never gave a second thought to the fact that the slow baking heat could cause a mini-quake in the earth. But it did.
Makes me wonder how many other things in life we take for granted. How long do differences in temperature, views, beliefs, and ideas simmer and cook before these relationships erupt beneath our feet? I wonder. selahV
INTERESTING POST THAT I READ TODAY...DATED 6/30/09. Seems Denny Burk is concerned about the "ground beneath our feet" also.
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Good thoughts selahv. I hate to hear someone say, "It just happened. I couldn't help it." It (whatever "it" is) happened over time. No one wakes up one day and says, "I think I will have an affair" or "I think I will become an alcoholic." It happens over time as the moorings are chipped away. Sort of like your road. Didn't just happen in a minute. It was the constant baking of the sun and weakening of the structure. Appreciate your thoughts.
Posted by: bill (cycleguy) | June 30, 2009 at 02:51 AM
Bill, I hate to hear that too. Sometimes folks are so busy with their own goals or efforts they fail to see what's going on in their lives too. They are the victims.
We see it in far more than just our personal relationships, too. It happens with entire systems. Before we know it...we accept this or that and wake up one day with a split in our churches, our school systems, our constitutions, and even denominations. selahV
Posted by: selahV | June 30, 2009 at 10:16 AM