When I first started living in that city, the people who had been there a while, sometimes their entire lives, would point to something and say, “Do you know what that is?” A quick head shake from me, and they would return with a colorful story, some historical blip, filled with the details surrounding the question at hand. Such was the life in Charleston, South Carolina.
It seemed to be that way everywhere you turned. There was a hidden gem, an important historical event, a secret passageway, or someone’s ghost, lingering on every street corner, or doorstep, or even sitting in the rocking chair on the piazza.
One of the biggest generators of those stories occurred on this date, August 31, back in 1886. That is when an earthquake hit Charleston and left more than 100 people dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed. It was epic, the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the southeastern United States.
Whoever is in charge of earthquakes gave them fair warning. But how do you prepare for a thing like that? It was preceded by foreshocks felt in Summerville, South Carolina, on August 27 and 28. A little, knock, knock, who’s there. But even still, no one could have been ready for what came knocking at 9:51 p.m. on the night of the 31st.
It shook and shook. Buildings crumbled. Sidewalks cracked. The rumbling could be felt as far away as Boston, Chicago, and Cuba. There was damage to buildings as far away as Ohio and Alabama. But it was Charleston that the earthquake was after. A magnitude of 7.6. Most of the buildings in town were seriously damaged. It is estimated that 14,000 chimneys fell that night. The city was a mess. The damage was in excess of $5.5 million (about $112 million in today’s money).
There is a large graveyard on Meeting Street at the Circular Church. It is quite a thing to see if you ever get down that way. But during the quake, the ground opened up at that spot, and things caved in. Torrential rains followed. As you might imagine, all the coffins and bodies within, went falling down and inward. It was a horrific sight to see. There was no way of determining who was who. So they decided to fill it in, a mass, unknown grave. Now a memorial plaque marks the spot.
When they started rebuilding, someone introduced the “earthquake bolt.” You can see them on many buildings as you walk the streets of Charleston. Essentially, they are bolts used to reinforce and strengthen those structures.
Earthquake bolts have two parts. There is a plate and an iron rod. So, the rod part passes through the building and then bolts to the timber frame on the interior. This, then, bolts the exterior masonry securely to the house’s frame — to its structure.
Since the plates are visible on the outside wall of a building, they are often fancy-schmancy. They are crafted as decorative elements in the shape of crosses, circles, scrolls, stars, or other such knobbers.
They say that if another earthquake hits Charleston, the buildings that have the rods may fare worse than ones without. The old building experts that I had spoken with, said the torque that’s created may make the buildings snap and break under those circumstances.
I was thinking about we humans the entire time I was explaining about the rods. Just like an earthquake hitting, we may undergo a tough situation or some crumbling event. As a result, we might use “emotional” earthquake rods on ourselves. We put that rod on and attach the beautiful plate on the outside to hold ourselves together. And everyone who sees that plate thinks that things are all fixed, and better, and perhaps even pretty. Yet on the inside, there is a tension, a torque. And if we are exposed again, even to a minor blow, we really will crumble.
Sometimes, our hearts, our minds, our souls, can only be healed by building them slowly, from the ground up. And we should also realize that every person is unique. The process is different for everyone. There is no “standard” nuts and bolts approach for everyone.
These things, these difficulties, can be large or they can be little. The most important thing is to love ourselves, and know that we are magnificent creatures, born to do wondrous things in any given moment.
Even though the world shakes around us.
This is the day. The day to be the beautiful, wonderful, and amazing, you.
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“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.” – Zig Ziglar
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“We are what we believe we are.” – C.S. Lewis
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“Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
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