Fires in California

I found out Tuesday that a short story I wrote last summer placed in a prestigious contest and is going to be published in December.

I sent an email to my family and friends. It contained exclamation points.

My brother didn't respond.

Then something occurred to me.

My brother lives in Southern California, mere miles from the fires that have caused our commander in chief to declare the area to be in a state of emergency.

(The president also said he's going to employ lessons he learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fires in Southern California. I suppose this means he's actually going to do something.)

I was being self-absorbed and now my brother's going to put proverbial gum in my hair, I thought.

I sent him another email explaining that I didn't mean to ignore the situation in Southern California, I was just excited, etc...

He wrote back a little while later and said that in fact he hadn't gotten the first email until late in the day. His email has been acting quirky lately, perhaps due to the fires. Anyway he said I was being silly and of course I should be excited and telling everyone.

Last night I called a film director friend who lives in LA. I wanted to check and see that he was alright in the midst of the fires.

He said yeah, everything was fine, and proceeded to tell me all about the final edit of his latest film and the festivals he's submitting it to.

Which, perhaps, goes to show something.

Life has a strange way of going on. Even in the craziest of circumstance.