Perceiving tragedy

November 12, 2012 by Joshua
in Blog

At the risk of posting too much on the recent storm and handling challenges, one more angle.

Imagine a storm destroys two neighbors’ houses equally. Imagine they also have equal material resources to handle the situation.

One neighbor looks at the wreckage and says

My home is destroyed. I have to start from scratch. But I built my life up in the first place. I can do it again. I can survive this challenge and make my life as good as it was before. Maybe I can learn from the experience and make it better.

The other looks at their wreckage and says

My home is destroyed. My life is ruined. What can I do? Who will help me? Where is FEMA? Who is to blame?

I’m speaking hypothetically. I don’t know if the above describes anyone accurately or not. If it resembles anyone in the current or any other situation that’s just coincidence. I just want to set up a situation to ask this question:

If a news crew comes by and only has time to interview one person, which one will they choose? What will your picture of the situation look like?

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