I live in Santa Clarita, CA. Over the weekend, a wildfire, known as the Sand Fire, moved in. In just 6 short days, it has burned over 33,000 acres, destroyed 18 homes, and taken 1 life. My boyfriend and I don't have much experience with fires or fire safety. We are originally from Modesto, CA, and while wildfires happen near there, it's not the same as being able to see flames from your patio.
Live updates from news outlets were reporting that people were being evacuated from their homes, so as a precaution, my boyfriend and I started packing up important items that we'd want to take with us in the event that the fire caused us to leave our home behind.
Aside from our safe that contains personal documents, I struggled with putting things together that I'd "need" because aside from my cat and my boyfriend, I didn't really "need" anything else.
I packed away my MacBook because it's where I write. I packed my great grandma's cookbook that she left to my nana when she passed. I packed the notebook I took with me to Paris and wrote in everyday I was there. I packed my favorite book, The Giving Tree that my great grandma bought me when I was seven. I packed some things that belonged to my biological dad, who passed away last year. Oh, and I packed my 8 disc Blu Ray set of Harry Potter because duh.
Honestly, just knowing my boyfriend and my cat were safe would have been enough. The other things I mentioned were merely things that I was given the luxury to pack up because we packed early.
I thought this morning how grateful I am that I don't need much. It's really easy for me, when a wildfire isn't occurring, to think about all of the things that I don't have: enough money, a better job, a better place to live, but I realized over these last few days that those things aren't important. That if I were asked to leave my home with the possibility of never seeing it again, I wouldn't care about the car I was driving or how much was in my wallet.
Those are just things and those things can be replaced.
I'm extremely grateful to the brave firefighters who have worked tirelessly to contain the fire. It is looking, as of this moment, like we don't have to evacuate, but it's good to know the things I'd need in case we did.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Friday, July 22, 2016
"Keep Me Where the Light Is"
Last week, I was driving in the car with my two friends when we saw a woman stopped on the sidewalk. It looked like she had dropped something, and because of her being in a wheelchair, she couldn't pick it up. My friend jumped out of the backseat to run across and help her. A bicyclist pulled up and stopped, and that's when it appeared that the situation might be a bit more complicated.
My other friend pulled her car over and we jumped out to see if we could help. It appeared that the woman was stuck in a hole. They tried to push her chair forward, and when that didn't work, they tried lifting it, but the chair was too heavy. After a few minutes, a truck pulled up and a man jumped out to help. Within minutes, they all had the woman back on solid ground. The bicyclist rode away, the man in the truck drove off, and as we walked back to the car, I felt a thick coat of tears forming in my throat.
This happened two days after the Dallas PD killings and 4 days after Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were gunned down by police officers.
I was feeling pretty awful about the state of humanity that entire morning before going to see my friends.
It seemed as though I had become accustomed to waking up in the morning and hearing about another shooting or how 'such and such celebrity' got into a twitter war with 'such and such celebrity' or how Bernie supporters were against Hillary because of [insert reason here] or The People vs. Donald Trump.
In short, I had gotten used to waking up and feeling our divide from one another growing stronger. I was also starting to believe that there were more negative, hateful things in the world than positive ones.
That is, until my friends jumped out of their car to help a stranger and then another stranger stopped his car to help more strangers.
I was struck with an overwhelming sense of love and hope after close to a week of anger and sadness. But I was also struck by the realization that these random acts of kindness and humanity happen every hour in the world, but we never hear about it. Instead, we hear about hate. The media essentially offers us two sides and then wants us to pick one:
Media: "Cop shoots unarmed Black teen"
Response: All cops are awful
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Media: "Black man guns down cops who were putting their lives on the line to protect protesters"
Response: All black men are dangerous predators
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Media: "Brown skin man who also happens to be Muslim commits mass shooting, pledges love to Isis"
Response: All Muslims are terrorists
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Last week, I was watching the news with my grandparents, and I was amazed by how negative it was. They dedicate two thirds of the time to the horrible crimes happening locally and in the world, and then 4-5 minutes of good stuff.
I want to hear more good stuff.
I feel it's worth mentioning that wanting positive news isn't in any way a means to ignore the bad or exist in an ignorant "the world is 100% wonderful/racism and xenophobia are just a figments of marginalized folk's imagination" bubble.
I know that there are bad things happening all over the world. I consider myself to be a pretty woke individual. I studied systematic racism, sexism, poverty, and hyper-masculinity in college and was a few units shy of a 2nd BA in Gender/Ethnic studies. I get it. I yell and cry about the bad stuff quite often, but what I need more of is good news. Because I think good news operates as a goal for us as humans to strive towards.
Before the guy got back in his truck after helping the woman get her wheelchair unstuck, he said, "we have to help each other. Especially now."
So, I guess the point of this post is to say that I am on a quest for good news to balance out the crappy stuff. I found this site and this one, and I've been visiting them for daily reminders that humanity still exists. I hope if you're reading this, you'll bookmark the sites linked above or comment below for other places to find positivity.
**Note, the title of this post is not an original of mine. They're lyrics from John Mayer's "Gravity."
My other friend pulled her car over and we jumped out to see if we could help. It appeared that the woman was stuck in a hole. They tried to push her chair forward, and when that didn't work, they tried lifting it, but the chair was too heavy. After a few minutes, a truck pulled up and a man jumped out to help. Within minutes, they all had the woman back on solid ground. The bicyclist rode away, the man in the truck drove off, and as we walked back to the car, I felt a thick coat of tears forming in my throat.
This happened two days after the Dallas PD killings and 4 days after Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were gunned down by police officers.
I was feeling pretty awful about the state of humanity that entire morning before going to see my friends.
It seemed as though I had become accustomed to waking up in the morning and hearing about another shooting or how 'such and such celebrity' got into a twitter war with 'such and such celebrity' or how Bernie supporters were against Hillary because of [insert reason here] or The People vs. Donald Trump.
In short, I had gotten used to waking up and feeling our divide from one another growing stronger. I was also starting to believe that there were more negative, hateful things in the world than positive ones.
That is, until my friends jumped out of their car to help a stranger and then another stranger stopped his car to help more strangers.
I was struck with an overwhelming sense of love and hope after close to a week of anger and sadness. But I was also struck by the realization that these random acts of kindness and humanity happen every hour in the world, but we never hear about it. Instead, we hear about hate. The media essentially offers us two sides and then wants us to pick one:
Media: "Cop shoots unarmed Black teen"
Response: All cops are awful
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Media: "Black man guns down cops who were putting their lives on the line to protect protesters"
Response: All black men are dangerous predators
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Media: "Brown skin man who also happens to be Muslim commits mass shooting, pledges love to Isis"
Response: All Muslims are terrorists
Outcome: Division (us/them)
Last week, I was watching the news with my grandparents, and I was amazed by how negative it was. They dedicate two thirds of the time to the horrible crimes happening locally and in the world, and then 4-5 minutes of good stuff.
I want to hear more good stuff.
I feel it's worth mentioning that wanting positive news isn't in any way a means to ignore the bad or exist in an ignorant "the world is 100% wonderful/racism and xenophobia are just a figments of marginalized folk's imagination" bubble.
I know that there are bad things happening all over the world. I consider myself to be a pretty woke individual. I studied systematic racism, sexism, poverty, and hyper-masculinity in college and was a few units shy of a 2nd BA in Gender/Ethnic studies. I get it. I yell and cry about the bad stuff quite often, but what I need more of is good news. Because I think good news operates as a goal for us as humans to strive towards.
Before the guy got back in his truck after helping the woman get her wheelchair unstuck, he said, "we have to help each other. Especially now."
So, I guess the point of this post is to say that I am on a quest for good news to balance out the crappy stuff. I found this site and this one, and I've been visiting them for daily reminders that humanity still exists. I hope if you're reading this, you'll bookmark the sites linked above or comment below for other places to find positivity.
**Note, the title of this post is not an original of mine. They're lyrics from John Mayer's "Gravity."
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