A lesson on perspective

[drloretta]

So of course, since everyone thinks if you live in MA you live in Boston, we were fielding a lot of calls and texts from concerned friends and family this week. My mantra was always the same: "We live a half hour drive from what's going one, we're fine." Lather, rinse, repeat.

I got a PM from DH's cousin on FB this morning. "I've been praying for you guys, I heard you were *only* a half hour away."

Only a half hour? I told her that some of you guys were *right there*. A half hour might as well be in the next state.

[MixedBerryJam]

I do the same thing, though, with my sister in Texas. Whenever I hear "Texas" and "disaster" in the same sentence, my stomach churns, even though I know point A to point B in Texas could mean the same thing as Boston-to-Chicago. And my friend in OK finally told me not to worry about him unless I heard the state house was in the path of the tornado, which I appreciated once I visited him and learned that it takes about 45 minutes to drive from one edge of OKC to the other (and he's a block from the state house). I still get the "they're right there" feelings.

[5kcandlesinthewind]

In fairness to them, it does sometimes take me close to a half hour to drive the three miles to work.  

I totally do the same thing, though: I have family in TN, and so I'm always checking in on them, even though they're mostly congregated in one small area of the state. But I've been amazed at the emails I've received at work this week - contacts from all over (including internationally) emailed to let us know they were thinking of us all and how horrified they were by the bombing. It was really wonderful.

[preppy]

Apr 20, 2013 12:22:07 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Apr 20, 2013 10:34:36 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

I'll also say that my company has been pretty great through all of this. They sent an email out at 6:45am telling us not to come in and sent several updates throughout the day to keep us informed and make sure everyone stayed safe. I personally also got emails and calls from colleagues who remembered I am very close to where everything happened and wanted to check on me. It's not like they are close friends so I thought it was even nicer in some ways that they remembered us.

By contrast, our company CEO sent an email to Boston employees at 7pm last night saying he hopes everyone is safe, but he encourages us to work out of either the Portsmouth or Providence office on Monday if the situation hasn't been resolved. Um, thanks.

What an asshole. Seriously.

We just got emails that our office is planning to re-open Monday but that certain roads may still be closed around the area so be sure to plan ahead and that they will be having counselors on site for those who need it. I work right of Arsenal St and a lot of coworkers live in the neighborhood so I thought that was a nice gesture.