Beauty in the Rubble

CNN reports one way the people of our country are banding together to help teenagers in tornado-torn Alabama hold on to a shred of normalcy and find beauty and joy amid the rubble of their homes and lives:

CNN - Renarda Archie stands in the rubble of her home

"Prom night is fast approaching, and the halls of P.D Jackson-Olin High School are filled with excitement.
'Been trying on dresses for days, haven't found one that fits,' said Brandi Johnson, 18, a senior at the school in Birmingham, Alabama.
Rooms are overflowing with dresses and shoes. An office is being used as a dressing room. The girls stream in and out, trying to find the right dress.
'Not even at the prom shop did I have this many choices,' Johnson said while trying on her 10th dress, still looking for that perfect one.
The school wasn't damaged by the tornadoes that tore across the region last week, but some of its students' homes were destroyed, and some lost everything.
In neighboring Shelby County, a room is filled with racks and racks of donated prom dresses that have been arriving around the clock from as far away as Texas."
Continue reading the story...


Can you imagine being 16 (or 66, for that matter) and having your life swept away in one night? So much more beyond prom dresses are needed in Alabama, yet I find this a beautiful way people around the country are reaching out. Brandi and Renarda, and all the other young ladies, have a mountainous calamity from which to recover; huge hurdles and trials to overcome. But I think it is vastly important for them to have as normal a prom as possible. These young men and women need to see some hope - they need to know that there is still joy and merriment to be found in their lives, that it is okay to forget their problems and take the time to laugh, dance, and enjoy friends. They need to know that beauty can and will rise from the rubble.

Humility

This story comes from last week at the New York Times, by Manny Fernandez.


Mike Segar/Reuters

"Millions of people around the city and the world watched and cheered Edison Peña as he ran in the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Everyone knew of Mr. Peña, the Chilean miner who famously jogged three to six miles a day while trapped underground for more than two months. Few knew anything of the two men who served as Mr. Peña’s shadows, jogging and walking and sweating with him for five hours through five boroughs for 26.2 miles, at the elbows of one of the most celebrated runners in the recent history of the New York City Marathon."
Continue reading the story...

This story chokes me up every time I read. First off... imagine the overwhelming feeling of going from being a normal Chilean miner to being trapped underground, running in the dark to being a celebrity at one of the world's most famous marathons. I can't believe what he accomplished so soon after his ordeal!
But the quiet humility of his honor guard is what catches my heart. Can you imagine squeezing a marathon in before a seven-hour restaurant shift? And without plans to have trained for that specific race? These guys are heroes themselves. The respect, care, and honor they showed Mr. Peña is humbling... neither one tried to share the limelight at all. They were simply honored to be a part of history.

About the Sunny Scoop

Even when the sky is dull and grey, shrouded in ominous clouds, or slashed by crackling lightning, the sun is still there, still shining. It just happens to obscured from our view by the storm in front of us.

So many times the daily news is like the sky, rocked by the thunder of a major disaster, heavy with clouds of scandal, or just a grey horizon of economy, economy, economy. When we see stormy skies day after day it can be hard to even remember the sun. But guess what... the sun is still there.

The goal of The Sunny Scoop is to find those hidden rays of sunshine in the news: amusing occurrences, heartwarming stories of kindness, tales of joy and triumph over the storms of life. The Sunny Scoop doesn’t wish to encourage its readers to ignore the reality of stormy news, but to encourage and provide hope, a reminder of the beauty and the good that are still very much in the world.

The Sunny Scoop welcomes your submissions! Please send any sunny story suggestions to sunnyscoopblog@gmail.com. Submissions must include a link to the original source to be considered.

The Sunny Scoop seeks to be enjoyed by all, regardless of religion, political views, race, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. and as such will seek to give respect to all persons and to avoid stories of a strong bias. However the writer of The Sunny Scoop, like all people, has her own strong beliefs and standards and will not post anything that is inconsistent with her worldview. She asks readers to remember that this blog is the work of an individual and that it is going to reflect who she is to a certain degree.

 The writer of The Sunny Scoops asks all readers and commenters to support the goal of universal respect as they seek to contribute to discussions of Sunny Stories. Absolutely no name-calling, vulgar language, or fighting will be tolerated. The writer retains the right to delete any comments at her discretion.