The Final Burn

Summer: It's supposed to be that season you like, as conditioned by the school year. Sun and beaches and skimpy clothes and street fairs and yay.

However, after weeks of temperatures in the 90s, even 100s, here in Stumptown a lot of us are pining for gray days and air that isn't hard to breathe in.

I have only marginal energy for things like street fairs when I'm as blasted by heat as we've been. One of my buddy's co-workers plain got heat stroke and passed out on the job, leaving my buddy to employ his fortuitous medical knowledge, then clock back in, leaving him jittery on adrenaline and stressed afterward.

It would be great if all I had to do was lay on a beach and be bored, but I have to work --- lately, in an un-air-conditioned factory. Before long, I'm understandably longing for a dungeon like Snape's to closet myself in. The closest I've come is putting space reflector cloth over my two skylights at home, and letting the AC run nonstop, kicking on and off as it deems fit.

Harder for many to bear than the heat, though, is the smoke. This happened last year, too: With so many consecutive dry days, California and Oregon caught fire. Thousands of acres burned, and ash rained down on Portland; I recall lifting a hand and actually catching ashes in my palm, my heart hurting for the countless trees that were lost to the flames. It's going on again now. Possibly less severe than last year, especially in our region, where the largest fire was started accidentally by a young dunderhead (and all it takes is one), but not by much, it still has people coughing on the smoke pouring in from Washington State.

Air quality warnings have been issued, ours being nearly the worst in the nation right now. I'm fairing all right despite the smoke, but others are suffering noticeably. Some days, the sunlight is golden even at midday, like a lamp through agate, and a fat red sun hovers above the horizon long before sunset. The sun looks kind of pretty that way, but what it indicates isn't.

Conditions as they are, it's not a time to skimp on our most precious of potions, but to indulge and be grateful. Laughing, I wonder: Where did this come from? Is it a joke or not? Well, if water can be burned, it can be dehydrated, right? In any case, it takes more water to reconstitute this here!

All things pass, and if we're lucky (and interpret our forecast correctly), the final burn of summer is on its way out tomorrow: Temperatures are supposed to drop into the 70s, then the 60s, followed by a few days of rain. We can only hope. Not only the trees and plants will be cheering!

We humans may be part of the problem, but wildfires are natural. Yet it doesn't mean they don't cause a lot of suffering. I feel as much for the animals who are either trapped by the blaze, or sent scrambling through human-inhabited areas as they flee what used to be their home. Even the humblest of deaths, such as this image that's been making the Internet rounds lately, brings tears to my eyes:

This snake's defiance in the face of certain doom is both heartrending and empowering. How many other creatures are forced, sometimes needlessly by us, into this position? The image offers a powerful takeaway message:
 Don't rush in recklessly brave to the point of stupidity (that's for Gryffindors). But when all is lost, go down with your tail up and your fangs out!

Post-note: There's a buzz on that the federal government is thanking the wildfires for clearing a path for the proposed trans-mountain oil pipeline. Am I the first to say: "Um, excuse me but . . . barf?" Or hiss, or gag, or SPEW? How many more ass-whippings will it take us to learn? This week we're lamenting the passing of Aretha Franklin, and worrying with due cause about the demise of respect, as well. Her soul sista Tina reminded us --- as I couldn't help but recall during that idiot dystopian craze ---- that we don't need another hero, another golden idol (sorry, Potter), but rather to cooperate and empathize; and we sure as hell do not need another damned pipeline! It's not even our entire species. Not all cultures or nations were as clueless, wasteful, or in denial as much as ours. With the worst government in the history of a society that was already greedy, callous and disconnected from Nature from its inception thanks to Western patriarchy, I think it's time to re-grease the hair and dig out the black hats.