Coping

With everything. The cold. The snow. The burst pipe damage. The trauma of watching the TV with the senseless shooting news.

Yeah, sometimes things just pile up. You wonder just how much you can take. I have lived here 39 years this month. Howard County is one awesome place to live.

The people are wonderful. The location, close to DC, Baltimore, a train ride from NYC, a couple of hours from the ocean. A couple of hours from the mountains.

A place with all four seasons.

Frankly, it is difficult to watch tragedies. Senseless tragedies. But, we get used to it as we age. 9/11. Hurricanes. Derechos. Tornadoes. Floods. Ice storms.

This afternoon a Facebook friend talked about how the children are affected by the “Run, Hide, Fight” approach to dealing with the senseless violence. They talked about their parents who lived during the cold war.

Wow! That would be my generation. In grade school during the Cuban missile crisis. The civil rights riots. The Kent State shootings. The war protests.

I keep hearing those song lyrics. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I grew up during some scary times. Did the Drop and Cover thing under our desks in fifth grade, while we hoped that missiles wouldn’t drop nuclear bombs on us.

I was in DC watching the Pentagon burn on 9/11. We lived with the fear of dirty bombs while commuting to DC.

In other words, we coped. We learned to deal with tragedy and stress. A week after 9/11 we drove to Montreal for a planned tour of the Gaspe Peninsula.

We won’t avoid Columbia Mall because of a shooter. We believe that showing strength during adversity is the way to live.

hocoblogs@@@