Drawn to destruction

We were driving home on Sunday evening after dropping our kids off (something awful in and of itself) and noticed a huge cloud of smoke rising somewhat near our neighborhood. We realized something big must be on fire and by the amount of smoke it was still raging. So, we decided to go check it out.

We quickly realized that we were not going to be the lone onlooker as we got closer and closer to the burning store. I'm telling you there were floods of people trying to get to see this thing. Everywhere we looked there were crowds either already camped out watching or on their way to the fire. We laughed about how it seemed like this was just the thing to do that evening...that all of Poznan was turning out to see this fire (ok, not "all" but I'd guess somewhere around 500 people at least had surrounded the perimeter that'd been setup by the police).

There were people calling others on their cell phones to give updates on what was happening, friends -- or so it seemed -- huddling together as if they were meeting at the local pub or wherever just to hang out, people who were really upset because of the devastation of the fire, others who didn't seem to care less -- they just wanted to see something explode (my interpretation), guys almost running people over as they directed their cars down sidewalks just to take a shortcut through a park to get to the fire.....in short, it was crazy.

People, not just Poles, are drawn to destruction. Do you think that it could have something with sin? I'm not giving my opinion -- don't know if I have one. But it just seems like we are drawn to destruction...and the more devastating, the more we stand there trying to catch a glimpse of something.

I'm not sure what we're looking for. In car accidents traffic piles up as people rubber-neck to see something in the accident. Police had to work really hard to keep people behind the perimeter because they kept wanting to get closer, wanting to see something. What are we looking for? Or is it just that we're drawn to it...somehow magnetically drawn to it?

Maybe we just want to see how the people involved fare...how they emerge from the devastation...whether or not they survived. Maybe we want to know what they experienced in the midst and later, the aftermath of it all. Maybe that meets some need we have inside of thinking that we could emerge too...we would survive.

Trigger any thoughts in anyone else out there?