Bombs and Earthquakes

It took me until today to understand why when people asked me the question, “Well is it what you expected?” My answer was always “No.”  I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about Resolute Support Headquarters, Kabul, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan in general – but it just wasn’t what I imagined.

Today I realized what it was that made things seem so unexpected.

Today in Kabul, home to roughly 9.5 million people, we felt two earthquakes and four explosions. You wonder to yourself what that must be like. Or, how do people live with that fear? And in your mind, you imagine the Kabul that Hollywood would be quick to show you.

So, what I realized today is that this isn’t Hollywood. When the earthquake shutters the building, your room doesn’t come crashing down on your head. When the explosion goes off people express fear on Twitter, but there isn’t mass hysteria in the streets – people aren’t screaming all around you.

See the thing is – this isn’t Hollywood. But it is real life. People don’t live 24 hours a day in fear, hunkering down. They don’t live in bunkers underground eating canned tuna and counting their bullets.

They live like you, and like me…dropping their children off at school, heading to work at a travel agency or marketing job or blood bank. They leave their office at noon to grab lunch. The difference is –  here they live with an underlying current of fear.  There is an edge. You don’t perceive it all the time but get whiffs of it every now and then.

My plane didn’t swoop into Bagram amongst gunfire and mortars. It doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous here. It just means this is another place like your town, or my town, like his city or her farm.

However instead of fearing that a mass shooting will occur in the local elementary school – it’s a suicide bomber, or two, or three.

The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

Psalm 27 verses 1-3