tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post8935887568687306665..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: FirefliesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-2051975907549666582009-06-07T15:13:31.180-07:002009-06-07T15:13:31.180-07:00(...Well, I suppose the "crumbling" bit ...(...Well, I suppose the "crumbling" bit might come off as sounding a bit dyspeptic. I meant to imply not only the tinderbox aspect and atmosphere of imminent economic collapse, but also the equally uncertain state of Californian geology: put in mind of this yesterday by a moderate temblor on the fault atop which we sit: a sharp, shocking, and meaningful reminder.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62417185700732850812009-06-07T14:54:26.865-07:002009-06-07T14:54:26.865-07:00Zeph,
Yes, any sort of distance... even in the ex...Zeph,<br /><br />Yes, any sort of distance... even in the experience of such calamities, I think, there is at first a kind of autonomic distancing, a strange moment in which our senses do the "thinking," before the sobering cognitive interpretation sets in.<br /><br /> I recall, that morning of the October '89 fire, stepping out the door into a curiously sultry atmosphere, watching a large plume of what looked like an equatorial storm cloud rise eerily through filtered sunlight, and for just that moment experiencing it as almost pleasant -- a feeling as though one had been transported to the tropics. Then in the next instant, on switches the mind, uh-oh. The hills are on fire.<br /><br />We'd experienced something of the same sort a half dozen years earlier in Santa Barbara. <br /><br />A uniquely Californian phenomenon, so common I'm always surprised people far away associate this crumbling state with golden dreams.TC/BTPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-3470513827485205502009-06-07T01:44:34.641-07:002009-06-07T01:44:34.641-07:00Fine poem, and that NASA photo is curiously beauti...Fine poem, and that NASA photo is curiously beautiful, even when one remembers what it represents.<br /><br />But then, I suppose when we admire the flight of swallows we're actually watching the death of many insects. Distance lends enchantment etc.Zephirinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02809525772159756122noreply@blogger.com