First I want to say that I'm very glad to hear the victims were recovered. That's a significant blessing for those who were waiting for word.
I completely understand anyone's decision to not be near that lake until there's closure. Dead bodies are icky. I'm not using that term to be funny. I'm an avid reader and I can tell you that there is no writer, living or dead, who can put into words an accurate description of the sight or smell of rotting or burned human flesh. Being in an enclosed space with remains of someone who has burned to death or with the remains of a human that is in the latter stages of decomposition hits you in a primal, crocodile-brain place and there is no language to convey that. Anyone who chooses to avoid that is simply acting on our own animal need to survive and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I will tell each of you, however, that I have communicated with many of you for years now about all sorts of personal things, to include core beliefs and I have read along thousands of times while you talked with each other. I know that, while all of you find dead bodies to be "icky" (again, without humor), I also know that if any of you spoke with a loved one of the person that disappeared in that lake another part of your primal instinct would kick in. To stand with someone who is on the precipice of learning that the most important person in their life is no more, and to listen to them as they verbalize there belief that there is a chance it's not true would change your minds. If you talked with them for minutes or even hours in their home or on the shore of that water and just nodded your head as they explained all of the ways this could all just be a mistake and told you stories of how their husband or child was somehow lost, or unconscious but safe, or how this could all be explained because the victim's cell phone just went dead and any minute they would call from a gas station twenty miles away....you get the idea. YOUR crocodile-brain also has a button that overrides the survival instinct and that button is empathy. We all have a trigger that says, "Help that human".
It may not seem like it these days because so many people just take a video with their phone while someone is dying, but I believe that this is actually a "helping" response from a human that has not been conditioned to deal with such a critical, primal situation. They've never experienced it or even thought about it so the only thing that kicks in is "I'll point my phone at it". But we all have that innate urge to help. Mine was conditioned as such that it screams "GO" in my head. I left my son's basketball games when he was a kid, I've left on my anniversary, I've left in the middle of the night and not returned for 48 to 72 hours straight. I've left on Christmas morning. It's still unbelievable to me that during my career I was called to THREE Xmas morning homicides. THREE! I can believe one maybe but three?! What's up with Christmas morning? SMH.
The point is, that primal phone rings and says that another human is suffering and your instinct is to help IF you have been conditioned to that. My wife even has it. Her trigger is still well past mine, but it's funny that she's been with me enough times when my brain screams "GO" that hers now does also. When she sees someone in danger I know that her conditioning has overcome her fear for my safety when she says my name. When something bad is right in front of her and she says "Patrick..." in a certain way I know her trigger has clicked and she's opening the door to let the dogs loose.
My point is, anyone's decision to avoid these sights and sounds are not only acceptable, they are a part of our crocodile brain and a part of our survival, but so is empathy. I've never met you, but I still know many of you and I know if you saw the living suffering you'd lose some of the "icky" attached to the dead. A blessing from the Lord that these victims have been found, the living have closure, and the lost are sitting at the right hand of God!
Wow, I just looked back at this post and it's reallly long. I hope you skipped it, LOL. Finally a topic I'm an expert at. Final words, WEAR YOUR PFD... or don't...turtles gotta eat too. (Callous humor can be a useful coping mechanism but some can find it offensive, sorry). God bless each of you and yours!
