A Broken Piece of Me
I'm going to share a personal tragedy with you of a religious nature. If you would prefer to not read then do so.
A small piece of my heart broke yesterday.
I woke up December 17th, 2010 at 6:30 AM. I knew my car had to be scraped and started if I was not going to be driving an iceberg on wheels to work. 6:45, my friend Sarah sends me a text.
"Provo Tabernacle is burning down."
As a bit of background, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Commonly known as Mormons. Tabernacles for us are meeting houses, usually used for combining congregations for regional conferences. This particular building was also a community building, used for special events with other faiths, and other general community concerts, etc.
This broke my heart.
I spent Friday researching on the web to see how things were going downtown. I mostly followed this KSL article, occasionally trying various different sources to try and find more information. These are pictures my mother took when she went downtown.
She even was photographed by a local news source, and the picture was picked up by the AP and used in a lot of different places. The poor woman photographed with her was completely unhinged (pretty much showing how all of the community felt.)
After work, I briefly drove downtown and could see all the firetrucks, and the pillar of smoke coming out from the ruins. Seeing the roof gone really...kinda started to make it sink in.
Later that night, after various events, including a Christmas concert elsewhere in the county, Mom and the kids met me downtown to look a where things stood. I held it together until I saw one of the pillars that held the balcony up standing free, silhoutted through the window. I walked around the building to the south side with mom, which was where I really lost it.
A light fixture in the doorway of the south side entrance. The heating vent right above it, between the stairs that used to lead to the clock tower. I heard part of the south-east tower stairs collapse. I could see through the melted and broken windows to where the organ should have been to the smoky sky. Flames could still be seen through the windows and busted doors.
Our whole community is heartbroken at the loss of not only a religious meeting place...but for the loss of a piece of HISTORY. This is one of the oldest buildings west of the Mississippi. Older than the SLC tabernacle.
I love that building. I have known that building for as long as I can remember. Growing up, our stake conferences were held there, and I have distinct memories of mom hissing at me and my younger siblings to get way from the balcony before we fell and DIED. I remember trying to slide down the banisters. I remember countless concerts over the years. I remember my sister at the age of three singing, "I am a Child of God" with her little friends. I remember the first time I heard the organ play during a dress rehearsal for our annual PHS Masterworks concert. I remember another Masterworks concert, performing a positively DISASTEROUS rendition of "Come Thou Fount."
I have so many memories of that wonderful, sacred building, and it breaks my heart to see it like this. And yet...there is still hope.
The miracle is not the fact that the image of Christ in the Second Coming is preserved. It is what it symbolizes. Christ is always there. He will ALWAYS be there for us, despite what fires of the world will try to destroy us. It cannot destroy Him.
Going back again to the ruins tonight, the fires finally extinguished, there is still a sacredness there, even among the ruins of that wonderful building that was dedicated to the Lord. I have felt it, and even in the face of this tragedy, I have found my faith strengthened. While the physical and monetary loss is great, the Spirit of God remains, and will never leave us.
Tomorrow night I will perform in another dedicated building, the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in SLC. I hope that I can share this testimony of faith and never ending spirit with those who come to see us perform.
While I will miss this building, and it hurts, I find comfort in God, and a true phrase I have written in my journal.
"And this, too, shall pass."
I like to think that with God's help, we can make it through and become better in all ways.
In case you're interested, here are some pictures of the building before the fire. Interesting fact: the building was originally built with a clock tower, but the building couldnt withstand the weight of it, so the building was condemned twice before they removed it.
