it is the worst attack of wildfires in california history.
yes some schools are open if they are not in the path of the fires.

keilarina,
most people interviewed on television just say they are happy to be alive and all the stuff they lost is replaceable.

kim,
we cannot understand the insanity of creating these fires. some newscasters suggest they are people who will then try to swindle the victims of the fires... fly by night companies. some say they are sick pyromaniacs. twelve of these fires all started last sunday... that's weird.

that's right... even if we are not threatened we still can feel the tragedy of others.
thanks for stopping by and thanks for commenting.

they haven't caught anyone yet, but on a news report someone did mention that it is a felony.... like we might think destroying hundreds of houses might be a misdemeanor.

yes, i bet you might mete out a fitting punishment, sir moontan.

i'm o.k. leonard. the fires are miles away. but the air is still full of smoke. most of these kinds of fires take place in the hills and the hardest hit are people who choose to live in wilder environments than the city.
all of this has kind of dominated the minds of everyone... especially, that someone has set some fires intentionally. we hope they catch the culprits.

hi, kim... thanks for visiting.

i have compulsively collected hundreds of amazing photos and will probably post a whole photo album of the shots people on the fire line have sent to news media.

one thing i didn't know about that's very interesting and heartrending is that there is equipment in the fire fighters' backpack which they hope to never use... it's a kind of a cocoon made of mylar and reflects heat. amazing pictures yesterday of a whole crew who had to resort to this ploy where for an hour as the fire crests over their very bodies, they are in an oven over 300 degrees farenheit.

this same crew after surviving in these cocoons was off to fight the fire again afterwards. now that's heroism. people around here are very grateful to the noble men and women who risk their lives to save their houses.

no the hearst castle is not in danger.

mom... only one fire is suspicious. and they are looking for a 'person of interest' in a white ford pick-up.... doesn't mean anything like they know who did it.

but the reward is at $245,000 for anyone who turns in the arsonist.

hi kim.... always happy to see you. yes, noble is the word for it.

of 22 fires, only one has been prooven to be started on purpose.
the rest are conditions which came together at the same time. that is, the so called 'santa anna' winds which come from the desert inlands with winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour. the dry tinder in wilderness areas can be ignited by the heat and the wind. fires like this are natural and have been occuring perennially. these days people have populated these areas to the degree that it becomes a disaster. people insist on living in these dangerous areas because of the beauty and quiet.

after this recent series of losses, i think the consciousness of having a defensible 30 foot perimeter and more fire resistent building materials will be seriously implemented.

even the million dollar houses which are large and luxurious are built with wood often with a brick veneer, that is one course of decorative bricks attached to combustible plywood.... just for looks. so they catch fire more easily. and even terra cotta tile roofs are constructed on top of combustible waterpoofing materials soaked in oil. one ember flying a mile from the fire can ignite that distant house when it is caught by the crevices in the roof tiles.
over 2,000 houses were lost this week. some were spared and some were taken. but with the firefighting efforts many were saved by thousands of firefighter and a cost of two billion dollars.

bismillah also,
but in history sometimes things do get real bad for a crisis. then there is a new awakening and life gets better again. peace comes after the disasters. we do go on... we do learn, but it takes time and it takes important decisions and sacrifices. we're all in the same boat.

it isn't a very popular belief, but i thing the united nations must begin to be a more effective unit. not just a forum.

bismillah is the humble recognition that i am just the instrument of a higher power. and that higher power is of necessity, inscrutible.

i have only found that attitude demonstrated in the writings of jalal-uddin-rumi, farid uddin attar, omar khyaam, bahauddin, nasr eddin.
the koran itself seems a conglomeration of pedants listing without understanding, dictums which are divisive and contrary to human nature. very similar to the the diversions of the catholic church and the israelite bible. i sincerely doubt that muhammed wrote that. i think it was written by some crusty old men who inherited authority due solely to their grey beards.

there aren't enough true scholars in the world these days to sort that all out. i suggest that we drop it all as divisive and feudal. not to mention futile.

pick up from where we are now. which is an overabundance of conscienceless governments, destroying the earth, a lack of control of anger, a mechanical acceptance of ridiculous antiquated practices and prejudices against color and sexual identity; plus a preponderance of graft and hypocrisy. these all go against the will of god. god created a world. just because you don't like it the way it is.... you feel powerful enough to exert your influence to set it right.
aesop of fable fame hated this kind of busy-bodiness. it's the ploy of individual ego-sufficient individuals to re-make the world to conform to their subjective preferences.

it's a mystery unfolding before our eyes. bismillah means that god must win.
do you think that muslims were the first to say "there is only one god."
amon, in egypt, was the first to promulgate the concept that all is one. akenaten rubbed it in... luckily, the proposition or axiom was preserved and spread around the world to take hold in china, india and greece and flowered at the same time in the golden age of world thinking, about 500 b.c.. anyway, if all is one, everything is absolute. all the laws of phenomenons are absolute. we would be better served finding out what those forces are.

of course, the proof that a mind we call god or allah, buddha, jehovah etc. can only be found within our own consciousnesses.

a prime mover is the source of our existence and there really shouldn't be any argument about that. since i didn't create the cosmos, who did? who maintains the universe? not me. not you. not muhammad or jesus or buddha or zoroaster or anyone but a higher intelligence. even jehovah only means "i am that i am". that's a mystery. consciousness is the mystery.

unless of course you are dizzy and imagine that such immensity might just be an accident. in which case i would recommend a double mac, pepsi and a movie.

but if that were true... then we are all in deep shit.

mr. khan,

o.k., i'm not "absolutely" wrong when i interpret the invoking of the name of allah when beginning an endeavor. it implies that i know that i cannot 'do' anything unless god also wills it. that's what i was getting at, not the perfunctory "bismillah"

also the 'writers' i referred to are not scholars, they're poets and mystics whose writing stimulates thinking on a higher level than pedantry or the forms of religion. attar was a chemist, khyaam was a tentmaker. b'ha-uddin was the master whose adherents are called the druze. and nasr eddin, we all know is the vehicle for special stories which are created to by-pass the 'head brain', or formatory center, to stimulate questions for the emotional intelligence, or intuition of some truth only understandable on a higher level of being. which we call 'openness'.

sweet one,
the assistance pouring in from people who feel gratitude for what they have has been very generous i am told. they are sorry to have lost everything but most of them realize that it's just 'stuff'. they are happy to have escaped with their lives.

mr. khan,
i don't know who is doing the counting, or even if they can count, or who they are counting. i have been in almost every state in the 'union' and looking around, i see about 10% are overweight. the rest are either thin or looking fit.

thanks ~keilarina~,

but his means of income was building tents. he is a famous sufi, and a man of great knowledge, yes, but his official occupation was 'tentmaker'

wikipedia is great but doesn't know everything.

good story nic... you were lucky weren't you? did you say 'bismillah' when you started up the dry river bed? j/k

good thing you prayed. if you didn't pray, it would probably mean you didn't care if you did die... i've had my 'touristas' experience in mexico also.

~keilarina~,
apparently, the encyclopedia brittanica doesn't tell everything that it must know either. he was called 'omar the tentmaker'. i guess they don't like to admit that he had a real job.

nic,
that's what i call 'living and learning'.