To rebuild from the fires, we must learn from the tragedies
Out of all the coverage I’ve seen of the Los Angeles fires, the hardest to watch was a video of an elderly man returning to his home, which had been reduced to a pile of ashes. As he fought back tears, he kept repeating how lucky he was: He had survived, and all he had lost was his house, which was just “stuff.” I recognize those conflicted feelings all too well from when I lost nearly everything I owned in a fire a few years ago. Our brains aren’t perfect storage mechanisms but work through hints and context clues to bring back things that happened in the past. On top of that, physical things started to feel flimsy: They were no longer a safe place to keep one’s sense of identity or memory. I didn’t even need most of the kitchen gadgets I’d bought: If I had a few pans and dishes, a chopping board and a knife, then I could make pretty much anything.
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