Making Tough Choices: Don't add to the pile

While living in a rural section of the Northern Shenandoah Valley, my family occasionally had the chance to see the beauty of an ice storm. The way the sunlight would stream in and bend color around the trees, fences, and every other surface was breathtaking. However, it wasn’t all beauty. Ice storms were commonly accompanied by power outages and a large number of auto accidents. During and after an ice storm, the roads became a like an ice rink. Those who felt compelled to travel frequently spun off of the road and remained trapped, unable to venture out on the ice, until help could safely arrive. During and after the more serious ice storms, my family and I took part in a rather macabre spectator sport. I don’t wish to minimize the property damage, or the personal trauma that people went through, but there was nothing we could do to intervene. We were fortunate that all the action was going in a direction away from our home. So, from the second-floor bay window, we watched. And, there we learned about choices and consequences.