Crumbling Down

That was the button that the Mayor of Buffalo pressed to reduce Gates Hospital to a cloud of dust and rubble.

I was just a few feet away from Mayor Brown when he hit the button as someone yelled "Fire in the Hole!"

And as I swung my phone around to take the slo-mo video of the blast the first bangs echoed out in the early morning sky.

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Those early blasts were followed by much louder, mind-numbing blasts, and in mere seconds, the concrete and steel began to break away...like a house of paper...

...the walls came crumbling down.

The shiver that shook my body was undeniable.

It was an out and out attack on my senses that while anticipated (I'd been at an implosion before) was shocking.

The crowd gasped and then a cheer went up.

A spontaneous, wonderful cheer that gave way to amazed chatter.

I had two thoughts:

"Amazing!!!"

and

"Everything eventually breaks down."

Those two thoughts erupted in my head and allowed another shiver to race down my back.

Then I was high-fiving guys who'd been on the job since February.

I had yelled at a couple of them...I had laughed with all of them.

They worked hard.

I worked hard.

And the guy who set the explosives had been precise.

"Amazing!!!"

I watched the dust settle and the Buffalo sky played a trick on me...the building where Dad had undergone surgery to remove a kidney...the building where I had worked as a laborer while going through school...

...was just gone.

The walls had come crumbling down.

It was a building that stood for years and would have stood for decades more.

But it had outlived its usefulness and new buildings will take its place.

"Everything eventually breaks down."

And I thought of the lives, the jobs, the relationships, the buildings and the homes...

...that eventually break apart.

Nothing lasts forever.

But one thing that will stay with me...

...until the day I leave this Earth...

...was the men who'd worked on the project...

...riding up on golf carts...

...just before the mayor hit the button...

...everyone was smiling.

Hard-working, every day...day after day guys...busting their asses in the name of getting the job done.

"Amazing!!!"