The big news this week was the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. This has been world news, a fact that is supported by me living in the same metro area as said bridge but able to read about it on the Sydney (Austrailia) Morning Hearld newspaper's website. Why read about it there? Just to confirm to myself that it wasn't myopia-- I'm right here, of course it is news and I can relate and sense the importance. But was it really a big deal to other people? The answer has been given over the last few days, a resounding YES.
This is a Big Deal, but what does that mean? It is big in a physical sense, big in the time to fix sense, and big in the human lives were lost sense. Yet I don't know what to write about it.
The physical scale is hard to describe with words in a worthy way. You can look it up in newspaper archives today and find phrases like 67 feet above the water, a couple thousand feet long, sixty cars, an unknown number of missing people. All just words that fail to convey the sheer Big-ness of this Deal.
The time to fix enormity is hard to write about because no one knows. 2-3 years is a long time in a culture raised on 30 minute sitcoms and 30 second sound bites.
It is hard to write about the human lives that were lost because I didn't know them but I think they deserve a better description than some stranger (me) could string together with a few words.
So maybe I've said enough. Maybe if I'm right, that this is a Big deal that anyone could relate to, then you already have and nothing else needs to be said.
(note: the photo is from the Minneapolis Star Tribune).
No comments:
Post a Comment