After the fires
I hesitated to write a newsletter this month. It’s hard to write upbeat things about the writing process when the city you live in is burning at its edges, and thousands of people have been dispossessed and displaced. And too many have died.
In fact, I didn’t do much writing. As the fires burned just a few miles from my front door, I found myself unable to get anything done. Instead, I was fixed on the news, the CALFIRE website and the magnificent Watch Duty app. It wasn’t healthy, at all. I felt powerless. So I focused on what I could control. I packed and got ready to move. And I volunteered, at the YMCA in Koreatown and at Union Station in Pasadena.
It was the best thing I could have done. Focusing on someone else other than myself was a great antidote to the anxiety I felt. But it also taught me a few things about my fellow Angelenos. Crime and thriller writers are often focused on the bad things that can happen, and those of us writing a story about a huge fire consuming a city might be tempted to push that narrative in an apocalyptic direction: the city burns, order collapses, mayhem ensues.
That’s the fiction. In fact, the opposite happened: people did everything they could to help. They volunteered. They offered shelter to the displaced. They checked in from all over the world and offered support. They gave generously to organizations providing for those in need. I saw this first hand: trucks pulling up to the donation centers loaded to the brim with everything from toothpaste and toilet paper to canned soup and childrens’ socks. A family driving up from Orange County with an SUV packed full of bottled water. A semi pulling up to the Y with a full load of energy drinks. A woman who, when I told her that gift cards were very helpful, went away and returned with several thousand dollars worth.
It wasn’t just individuals: Firefighting organizations sent crews from all over the country to support. Mexico sent 72. Canada sent 60. Ukraine put 150 on standby. I saw organizations like the Y and Union Station pivoting to make themselves donation and support centers that were mobbed by volunteers. And companies gave: Starbucks donated gallons of free coffee. Trejo’s donuts gave hundreds of free donuts. I barely had to ask. I just mentioned what I was doing, and they loaded me up.
It was a remarkable experience, and it really raised my spirits. And it was a bit of a blur for a while, which I welcomed. One thing I did notice: there were just as many Trump bumper stickers on the vehicles that pulled up for me to unload as there were for Harris. It was great to see that Californians will pull together to help each other when things go bad, regardless of political affiliation. It felt like a genuine moment of unity after such a divisive year.
It’s not that I didn’t have faith in humanity or my community before. But I am reassured. And I am hopeful. And if I ever do use the events of this month in a book in the future, it will be to show the innate goodness in people that I saw, rather than the darker side of humanity that I might have feared.
