We all have our stuff; but we must be careful and not take our stuff too seriously. We sometimes fall into the trap that says; if I only had ______ I would be happy. The blank can be anything you want to imagine, but as we grow older we learn that stuff and happiness are totally unrelated. I learned a lesson in stuff a few years back, when the tornado hit Tuscaloosa Alabama.

  Our dog team was called in to look for victims. The community where the tornado hit was almost completely destroyed. The number of missing was estimated to be very high. While there had been loss of life, the speculation on the number of missing turned out to be incorrect. When we arrived on the scene nearly everyone was accounted for.

  We were assigned a particular neighborhood to search. Many of the houses were destroyed down to the foundation. Some were still standing and looked like houses from the front, but when you opened the front door there was no ceiling or back wall. Cars were overturned and smashed up against what few trees were still standing. Stuff was everywhere. People were in the rubble trying to save what they could. They were piling it in and on the few vehicles that were still mobile. Front end loaders were clearing debris from the roads and pushing the rubble into big piles. It was truly an eye opening experience. As I stood in the stuff, I began to realize how temporary and valueless it actually is.

  There were nurses walking through the neighborhoods assisting those in need. One lady who had succumbed to the heat was being assisted by two dog team members, who were also paramedics. In about ten minutes, the nurses arrived and some people constructed a cardboard structure, so the lady would have some shade. It was about an hour before the ambulance could make its way to our location. The lady was okay.

  As we worked our way through the rubble, I noticed a lady standing and staring at the ground. I asked her if she was okay. She said she was, but thought that her Alabama flag was ruined. I looked down and sure enough there was a University of Alabama flag buried in the mud. I got down in the mud and pulled the flag out. We had no running water so I could not clean it off. I gave it a couple of shakes, folded it up and gave it to the lady. She thanked me and I told her that she now had a problem. She was now going to have to tell everyone that someone from the University of Georgia had saved her Alabama flag.

  Everywhere we went that day there were stories of survival and of those who did not survive. One of the resident’s grandfather had built a tornado shelter. It had never been used, but now they can tell of the twelve people who survived the tornado in that small underground shelter.

  I started writing this as a lead in to a story about stuff. Our dedication to stuff could make a humorous story, but as I recalled this adventure, I got sucked into the seriousness of it. So I pray that you never have to go through a situation like this, but if you do, be thankful for life, the stuff can be replaced and you didn’t need most of it to start with.

  The people were all thankful that we had come to assist and even though there was not much we could do, they were grateful for the effort. By the end of the day all I had rescued was that Alabama Flag. But the lessons I learned put life in perspective.