“Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: We are about to get some rain. Associates, please be sure you have a flashlight at your station.”

Being Midwesterners accustomed to all types of inclement weather, my sisters and I, who were shopping at a Central Illinois Wal-Mart last week, didn’t think much of the announcement. But as we exited the store, high winds pelted us with gravel and debris, while shopping carts sailed unaccompanied across the parking lot at alarming speeds. Being the level-headed Midwesterners we are, we ran like crazy for the car, screaming all the way.

Back at my parents’ house, the power was out. Uprooted trees lay akimbo on cars, and power lines dangled dangerously low to the ground. Thankfully, under the watchful eye of my mother, the grandbabies slept through the whole thing.

Life is kind of like that: One minute you’re shopping for groceries, and the next you’re reading to your little one by candlelight, thankful that everyone you love is safe, warm and dry.

Coming from a long line of over-scheduled overachievers, I am not prone to appreciate the unexpected. But sometimes – in summer vacation as in life – you just have to go where the wind takes you.

Joan Brasher
Editor in Chief, Vanderbilt View
view-editor@vanderbilt.edu

Posted 07/01/08