digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Treat your possessions and circumstances as temporary and held on loan, and rely on Divine Providence one day at a time rather than assuming control. The speaker, R' Fischel Schachter, recounts how a propane gas explosion destroyed the newlywed couple's first home in a bungalow colony, leaving the family's belongings scattered but the interior largely intact. He draws the lesson that life is fragile and no one truly owns anything.
Key Points
- The couple was young and naive, living in a second-floor apartment in a large rooming house called the main house, with a new crib and a music box as their baby's comforts.
- The couple had left their infant with his in-laws that afternoon; in the panic they briefly feared the baby was still upstairs before remembering he was safe with the in-laws.
- A gas explosion blew the brick exterior walls off the building, leaving the floors and interior walls and furnishings standing.
- Bricks from the walls were found about a half mile away in the forest, and a technician from the gas company was badly hurt, though he survived.
- A woman on the front porch was blown off but was unharmed.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The only practical advice given is from the speaker's wife, who said you must clean up before leaving the house because you never know where the walls will blow off. The speaker frames this as a reminder that one should be ready for sudden loss.
- The house's surviving chimney had been holding up the interior, and the rest collapsed. The next morning, a tractor pulled the chimney down with a chain.
- Town officials roped off the area and posted guards because the structure was judged unstable, to prevent people from retrieving belongings.
- The couple had to re-buy their clothes and found another place to stay for the summer.
- Propane gas is described as very dangerous, and the speaker notes there is no utility company that fills tanks weekly.
Bottom Line
The story is less about the explosion itself than about how quickly a settled life can be taken away, and the speaker's conclusion is to accept each day as a gift.
