California Burning

A man watches as his home is engulfed in flames in Ventura County, California.

Imagine that everything you own is gone in minutes: Your house, your car, your clothes. That purse you agonized over because it was so expensive but you figured it would last your whole life. Those six hand-painted dishes you got in Italy and held on your lap the whole long flight home. All your art, including your own paintings. Your wedding gifts, and all your important documents. Your medications, luggage, shoes. All your books.

The baby pictures! Your wedding album! And what about the pets? And you can't seek asylum next door because next door is now ashes, as is the whole block, the whole neighborhood. That nice little organic market you frequent is gone too.

This horrendous situation is underway as southern California continues to burn for the fourth consecutive day while I write this post, sitting in my comfy house in Maine that is not in flames, is in fact a tad chilly with snow predicted this weekend, sipping my second cup of coffee brewed in my beloved coffee maker which would melt in mere seconds in a fire.

This morning the glass man is coming to repair our shower door which has gone out of alignment and doesn't close perfectly. This seems like no big deal to me, but it bothers my husband greatly and so we are having it fixed. What fools we are, thinking it matters.