FIRE FIRE BURNING BRIGHT.
Momento Mori for beloved friends in Los Angeles. and people we dont know in Gaza
A long distance vigil is an exhausting affair as one relies on television coverage and hysterical long distance calls. This one is personal. Confusing and horrifying as six fires scorch southern California and the environs of Los Angeles. The showplace of America’s beachfront homes bathed in glamour and architectural beauty vanished in two days. My best friend living in West Hollywood as well as his son and grandson in Sherman Oaks. The son has been evacuated and the father sends him a poignant birthday message which he will read in the evacuation center as he .watches to see if his house has already burned or will soon.
A vast amount of structures were destroyed among these were homes, shops restaurants and theaters. Loss of life was minimal about 27 given the vast acreage on fire. Some domestic pets and many automobiles yet home owners were able to escape and find shelters. Food and medical aid were organized rapidly. Neighbouring countries like Canada and Mexico supplied fire fighters and planes which dumped water on burning areas. The glamorous beach front villas of Malibu and Pacific Palisades were reduced to burnt toast.
st. While the stunning Getty Museum with its priceless collection of Art survived.
They had built in fireproof elements in their structure plus around their parameter. What remined was the inescapable shock of seeing a home filled with the scent, personalities and memorabilia of people vanish. With this came the sense of loosing personal history. Everything which was material was annihilated. Largely material is what I reasoned with my LA pals. America is a wealthy nation and people were being helped immediately. Insurance claims and Government offers kicked into action. Donations gathered. Movie stars and celebrities stepped forward and a Sikh Temple cooked a thousand meals a day packed them and gave them out. This was the priority of LA adminstrators and the rest of the nation.
The Gaza. carnage kept flooding my thoughts. A staggering genocidal venture perpetrated on people whose circumstances differed. There was no relief. It took weeks for supply trucks to get permission to cross the Israeli border into Gaza. Here homes were bombed reduced to rubble. Even hospitals were attacked. Children starved. There was no home left nobody had the time or thought of saving family memorabilia. They only tried to save their lives. Two different events with two different outcomes.
This scene above in Gaza is nothing to do with Nature. No 100 mile an hour wind raging through rain starved Los Angeles by Nature’s punishing whim. This is the horrifying whim of a cruel government who knew exactly what they were doing. Again material loss pitted against loss of precious life where children were not spared. I belong to the North American fat cat camp. category of world citizens .
There were protest movements on streets Universities and celebratory events. However there was no rapid action cessation until the cobbling of a cease fire plan a few days ago.
In a troublesome fashion i kept gauging the two separate events called tragedies. Was it loss of life which was more significant than loss of material items which were milestones of memory. Is this memory which tells us who we are . Mostly this is to do with past. The photographs of old ancestors captured in celebratory settings. Works of Art collected lovingly which defined culture or the barbeque in a patio which displayed both food and riotous appetites. The ease and plenty of Southern California living framed besides toddlers of Gaza without shoes clinging to mothers who searched for food and water. Not a hairbrush in sight or a plush teddybear. and more horrifically their own siblings buried under mounds of bombed rubble? siblings.
With overstimulation by image we have also learned how to become shock proof. and ultimately forgetful. So much for memory makers and their value. So much for little grey insurance men deciding how to put value to loss. There were no film stars roaming in Gaza rubbles making searing videos. Just huge swirling mobs on both sides baying for revenge and of course blood.
So for us onlookers whose days are punctuated by news clips Cavafy X keeps us addicted to minute by minute news there may be a call for moral decision and a heartfelt apology for being unable to either predict the vagaries of Mother Nature or power hungry men. I am reading the poems of Cavafy and even watching stand up comedy on Netflix to endure this darkness of the soul . Finally, i have looked around my home and wondered which memerobilia if necessary would be worth saving. if a fire broke out. My decision is nothing as a life cannot be captured in an object or image it can only enter consciouness like an arrow either to pierce or exit.