August 1

I know I haven't blogged in a while. Like most of you, I'm out having too much fun in the summers to blog. And of course, I probably have more blog-worthy material now than ever, but no time to actually blog it.

But I couldn't let today pass without a post. One year ago today I was biking with the youth from my church in southern MN when time seemed to stop all over the state. I don't want to over dramatize a tragic event where (fortunately given the circumstances) ONLY 13 people died, but those first few days after the bridge collapse, there was a different feeling that palpable, and reminded me of living in DC through 9/11.

Photos speak much more clearly than I can write, so I'm going to just put some photos online that I have taken over the past year for you all to see.

Photo taken from Stone Arch Bridge days after the collapse

The old bridge takes shape down on the river flats below the UofM

One month later the bridge is still on the rail cars

One month after collapse

It's hard to see the 35W logo, but this is from a post-collapse Twins game last fall

Bridge is really taking shape - July 13, 08

This past Tuesday I had the extreme privilege of taking a hardhat tour of the 35W bridge reconstruction. I was able to walk around the entire site. The progress they have made in less than a year is astounding. Absolutely astounding.

Me and mine are Safe

I still can't process what happened. I've been gone this past week helping lead a high school bike trip with my church. We biked around the southern portion of the state and we were in Faribault at the time of the tragedy. I feel very detached from what happened and I'm now just able to see images and learn the full extent of what happened. It's hard to wrap my mind around. I am just so thankful that the loss of life was so minimal with how bad it could have been. My heart grieves for those who died and their families. I still feel very emotional about it. I just watched some online coverage of the collapse and honestly, I started crying, 3 days after it happened.

My reaction to this reminds me of two different events in my life. The first is obviously 9-11, when I learned of the Pentagon attack by looking out of my apartment at the Pentagon in flames. Yet in many ways, my reaction is more similar to how I felt when my Grandpa Meisner died when I was on a boat in Australia. His funeral happened by the time I even got word he had died. It took me months to fully process that because I feel like I had missed out on part of the grieving process. And with this 35W tragedy, I feel like being out of town, away from TV and media, I missed out on that initial grieving process. It's an odd feeling, and feels rather selfish, but it is what it is.

My prayers go out to all who have been affected (and for that matter will be for years to come).