Disaster on I-4: We Are Guaranteed No Time Beyond the Present

Smoke from a controlled burn, gone out of control, and unanticipated dense fog rolling in, created a death-scene disaster of twisted, broken, and burned vehicles and bodies in central Florida this week. Wednesday morning, beginning around 4:30 a.m., Interstate 4 northeast of Tampa and southwest of Orlando became an instant murky hell, literally, as visibility suddenly dropped to five feet or less. About 70 vehicles were involved in multiple deadly pileups. There were four immediate fatalities. About 40 people were taken to area hospitals, five with life-threatening injuries.

From the calming peace of an emerging, promising Florida morning to near blindness, screeching breaking metal, exploding shattering glass, screams, and unanswered pleas for help: it happened in a heartbeat. Heartbeat. Immediate. Total.

The accompanying screen captures (from real-time-tragedy video shot by Bay News 9 of Tampa) provide graphic, chilling testimony to humankind's rush to oblivion.

Florida Division of Forestry and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officials were trying desperately to manage the out-of-control burn. Weather bulletins vainly cautioned of incoming fog and decreasing visibility - at the time of the crash, visibility was cited as a quarter of a mile. Warnings of the danger of fog were posted along the interstate by the Florida Department of Transportation. The Florida Highway Patrol was monitoring the roadway and trying to determine if conditions were grave enough to close the Interstate.

Trying desperately to manage, vainly cautioning, warning of the danger, trying to determine if conditions were grave enough...too little, too late. The result: carnage and tragedy - for some, terminal.

In the aftermath, troopers of the FHP advised, when encountering high-risk, foggy conditions on the interstate, one should immediately find an exit. Slowing or pulling over to the shoulder is no defense against other drivers flying recklessly through the fog, unchecked. The problem, of course, is to find an immediate exit. Most often, unfortunately, there is no immediate exit - and for some at the Polk City disaster, there was only a permanent exit from Life.

This natural, visible fog enveloped, overcame, and lead these drivers on the Florida interstate to destruction. Other fogs, natural - yet largely invisible,
can enshroud any of us and send us smashing into one another and ourselves in wildly spinning, out of control, wrecks of attitudinal, spiritual, and behavioral destruction.

There is the Fog of War. There are fogs of politics, epidemics, aging, et al.
The most personal, blinding, and, potentially, destructive is the Fog of Love.

Although the exact origin of "Fog of Love" may be argued, the love of poet Guillaume Apollinaire for his beloved Annie reveals the natural conjunction in the mysterious allure of fog and the driven intensity of love.

"Fog of Love" is thrown around, recklessly it seems, on posts, blogs, and even by writers. Its relevant and meaningful currency approaches the clichéd scrawl on the gas station stall wall. Yet, at its true source, the human heart, its reality remains poignant and descriptive.

Is the Fog of Love an entrancing myopic opaqueness or a liberating universal transparency? Only you can answer - to yourself and to the one you love.

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[Disclaimer: This article does not trivialize the tragic events and losses on I-4 at Polk City, Florida, January 8, 2008. Rather, it seeks to underscore the magnitude of the consequences which may transpire in a "Fog of Love." Equally, it seeks to underscore the stark reality that we are guaranteed no Time beyond the present.]