The Glow of Flames and the Moon

The sun has set on another day of fire in Southern California.

My eyes and my sinuses are irritated by both the dryness of the air and the faint, acrid odor of ash. As awful as the fires that have raged continue to be, the smell reminds me of those early November days from my childhood, days spent raking leaves and then burning them.

Every Fall we enjoyed a colorful carpet of red, orange and gold leaves. They fell from the big oak and maple trees in our yard, shielding the slowly browning grass from the increasingly frosty evenings. As the weeks passed, we threw them at each other, rolled in them, stuffed them down shirts, watched them wither around the edges and, finally, turn brown under bushes.

Once the browning began, the day of reckoning was inevitable. We raked the leaves into piles and carried them bit by bit to a big oil drum of fire set securely in the center of the driveway.

I'd watch the flames from a distance, watch them lick and curl around the mouth of the barrel. They'd devour every scrap of fuel till the leaves that had covered four or five big trees in our yard were mere inches of gray, lifeless ash.

And now, my car has a light dusting of gray ash on the hood from leaves I have never seen, never touched, never thrown over my head while spinning in circles. The closest fires, flames that have burned leaves, trees, animals and homes, are at least a thirty minute drive away, not counting traffic. My family is safe. So, trust me, I'm not complaining too much about my eyes and sinuses.

But there are plenty of people out there who are complaining. There were a couple of firefighters in my local Starbucks this morning and I found myself wanting to say something encouraging to them. I wanted to give them some sort of verbal high-five. But before I could collect my thoughts and open my mouth, one of the other patrons decided to throw her two cents into the mix.

"Maybe if some people weren't sitting up in Starbucks ordering lattes, folks wouldn't be losing their homes!"

What, what, what??? Wow. I guess every single firefighter in LA is supposed to abandon their posts and head out to the boondocks. Never mind that they may eventually be called to duty putting out a fire in the city.

But the two firefighters classily ignored her as they waited for their drinks. Everyone else also ignored her as she continued to sputter about firefighters being a, "waste of tax dollars."

One heavily tattooed customer complained to her friend that she might have to buy a gas mask, "Because this air is so f***ed up."

He consoled her by telling her how at least we Californians know how to handle a disaster better than, "those people" in New Orleans. He started to talk about how only five or six people here in Cali have died as opposed to the, "dummies in New Orleans who wouldn't evacuate".

Was he trying to say "Those people" + "dummies" = black people??? Hmm...

I came home tonight and turned on the TV, only to see that the political grandstanding and finger pointing about these fires has definitely begun. And in the meantime, leaves, trees and homes are still burning.

Now the almost full moon is rising above Los Angeles. According to NASA, tomorrow when it's completely full, it's supposed to be the biggest and brightest full moon of 2007. But to my eyes, it's a bit yellow, surely tinged a bit by the ash floating through the atmosphere.

I hope it's glow is a bit brighter for you.