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No Sympathy in LA
by John Racke "I didn't know what else to do! I'm from Montana," said Trevor. "I was just innocently cruising down I-10, lost in thought. The old clunker was known to act up occasionally, but never like that." Trevor recalled that phase of his young adult life. It hadn't been easy for him coming to L.A. as a sophomore. Unlike his little hometown of Ox Bow, people here were strangely unhelpful as he tried to settle into the new school. But then it hit. All of a sudden, the front-end alignment shook violently. He wrestled with the steering trying to see how he was going to describe this to the mechanic. In the struggle he also noticed that all four tires were bouncing around like they were on an old dirt road. But this was a smooth freeway. Something was very freaky. By this time the rest of the freeway looked deserted. There were columns of cars pulled over to the side. Then he understood. This was an earthquake! Struggling to keep control he glanced at the car in the next lane. A young woman clenched tightly on her steering wheel with white knuckles. When their eyes met momentarily, she suddenly stiffened and gave him that haughty "everything's-fine-in-my-life" look. She wasn't about to admit there was a problem. Trevor thought, "Peopledon't act so perfect! We're all going through this." "That's when I saw it for myself," said Trevor. "These people want to pretend they are above the normal, everyday problems. That is why there is so little empathy, or reaching out." At that point in his life, Trevor wasn't much wiser. Not knowing what else to do, he kept the normal pace, for the rest of the quake, down the freeway over bridges e-mail: [email protected] Dwight Racke has a BA Degree from the Moody Bible Institue. He has been involved in ministries ranging from foreign missions to Christian Broadcasting. Currently, he makes his home with his wife in Oregon. They have two grown children in the military. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |