{"id":15128,"date":"2025-01-12T00:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T05:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=15128"},"modified":"2025-01-12T00:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T05:07:13","slug":"focusing-on-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=15128","title":{"rendered":"focusing on the fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2026 five football fields every minute\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been trying to wrap my brain around that reality for days now, watching the fires continue to engulf Southern California. Such is how fast authorities said the fire was initially spreading with zero containment at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an awful, awful thing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers are mind-boggling\u2026 the extent of the destruction\u2026 tens of thousands of acres burned\u2026 hundreds of thousands evacuated\u2026 still going\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we experience awful things, we react. Fast and furiously, we want it to stop; we want to see it no more; no more hurt; and while so often there is nothing we can do, we feel helpless and find ways to react. And one of the fastest ways to react \u2014 even with the ongoing awful \u2014 is to blame a singular person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blame is fast. It\u2019s easy. And a singular individual or entity gives us a target at which to conveniently direct all of our emotion. It just may not be entirely accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s face it; much has contributed to California\u2019s catastrophe. To suggest that this is all the result of climate change is an exercise in magnanimous na\u00efvet\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start with, greater Los Angeles was experiencing drought conditions. According to the Los Angeles Times, <\/em>\u201cThe last time Los Angeles recorded rainfall over a tenth of an inch \u2014 the threshold that officials typically consider helpful for thirsty plants and the reduction of wildfire risk \u2014 was May 5, when downtown received just 0.13 inches of rain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the Santa Ana dry winds \u2014 those that sweep down from the deserts and across the Southern California coast \u2014 which were said to be \u201csupersized.\u201d Topography played a role. Humidity was low. Then, too, multiple other aspects factored into both the initial and comprehensive response\u2026 land and forest management\u2026 fire department budget cuts\u2026 budget prioritization of other things\u2026 water availability\u2026 dry hydrants\u2026 ambiguous evacuation plans\u2026 emergency preparedness\u2026 inaccurate alert systems… etc. etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u2026 <\/strong>(Follow me here\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of my friends who\u2019ve come to a solid, Judeo-Christian faith have found their way there because of a simple, binary equation. They see evil on this Earth. They have no doubt evil is real. And they thus know a greater good must exist<\/em> in order to counteract (and be victorious over)<\/em> the evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the ways, no less, evil is alive and well is how satan \u2014 sorry, I don\u2019t believe his name deserves capitalization \u2014 but how satan tempts us to focus on the wrong things at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, in the current catastrophe, people certainly made mistakes. Yes, we might not like all the politics involved. True, we trust (rightly or wrongly) some politicians more than others. But the bottom line at this very moment in time is that the enormous problem needs to be solved. The fires need to be extinguished. People need help. They need our physical assistance and our heartfelt prayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It matters not if the people are rich or poor, citizen or immigrant, celebrity or not. It matters not if you like them or not. Those affected by the fire need our prayers. Hence, it would be wisest to put our energies there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time for evaluation will come. Until then, let\u2019s withhold casting any rhetorical stones, focusing first and foremost on the biggest problem at hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026 five football fields every minute\u2026 I\u2019ve been trying to wrap my brain around that reality for days now, watching the fires continue to engulf Southern California. Such is how fast authorities said the fire was initially spreading with zero containment at the time. What an awful, awful thing. The numbers are mind-boggling\u2026 the extent … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “focusing on the fire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15132,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15128\/revisions\/15132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}