The Virginian-Pilot
NOW THAT our family has evacuated from the wildfires in San Diego, I'm pretty sure no one is going to let us move back to Hampton Roads. Folks will check out our record of natural disasters and file an injunction to keep us and THE BIG ONE away.
I can't blame them. No matter the duty station, we seem to arrive right on time to be smack in the middle of one national disaster or another. We've lived through multiple hurricanes including Katrina. We've hunkered down in snow emergencies and weathered catastrophic drought. The D.C. sniper even shot a lady at The Home Depot by our house in Arlington.
It's enough to make me think I'm cursed. Maybe that necklace I picked up at Thrift Store City was not actually a poodle with faux emerald eyes but the cursed amulet of an ancient Egyptian priestess of the weather.
Mom does not want to hear about any curses. She was more excited last week about my ability to evacuate and find shelter than she was when I earned my diploma.
"I hate to say that you're good at natural disasters," she gushed on the phone, "but, really, you are!"
Really, Ma, I'm not. More than anyone I know our family's ability to squeak by during a disaster is not a certifiable skill. It's pure luck. Ask any one of the thousands of people who lost their homes. This family is just dodging bullets.
Or at least that's what my 14-year-old tells me.
"We gotta be like Neo in The Matrix," Sam said. "We bend and sway out of the line of bullets while the 3-D camera swings to a different angle."
I watched him demonstrate his Keanu Reeves-esque moves and thought maybe the kid had something.
A lot of the time, that's what adult life is all about. Generally we avoid disaster based on planning and common sense. We buckle our seat belts. We stay off the top step of the ladder. We don't drink the Windex no matter what color it is. We buy insurance for everything else.
Yet there are moments when we're richly aware that no matter what we plan, we are really only dodging bullets. Time seems to slow and shift as we nip back into our own lane before that semi crosses the center line. The angles alter as we catch the baby when he launches himself down a flight of stairs. The air crystallizes between bike tire and car bumper. That's the Neo moment when the bullet is dodged and tragedy passes. Then it's only an instant until everything speeds up again.
I'm OK with that. I don't need to be constantly aware of a world full of near deaths and almost dangers. I just like to think that when these disasters pass us by we are meant to shift and bend and turn as fate glides by swinging its awesome arsenal.
Jacey Eckhart, jacey87@mac.com
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Opposing Forces
In the 7 places our military family has lived in the past 17 years, we too have dodged many natural disaster bullets. Typhoons in Hawaii and Guam, fires and earthquakes in San Diego, and a white out in Iceland. Sam's analogy is perfect! Our luck finally ran out when Katrina found us in Louisiana, punched a hole in our roof, and rained inside our house.
We're back in Hampton Roads now, so, come on back, Jacey; maybe our disaster magnets will oppose each other and create a protective shield!
I enjoy reading your stories of life from a military family perspective. No matter where you write them from, they are relevant to many of the military families who read the Pilot, either in print or on line, both here and afar. Thanks!
Telecommuting Commentator?
If Mrs Eckhart resides in San Diego, why in the world is the Pilot carrying her commentary. Are there no columists who actually live in Hampton Roads capbable of writing regional relevant commentaries? Find a job in San Diego Jacey and let the Pilot employ someone who actually lives here and is in tune with the area.