17 August 2016

Today was odd. Due to the massive wildfire, school was cancelled therefore I stayed home from work. This was fine since the major travel corridor was still shut down due to damage and current danger. (I was not about to travel back the way I came home, which took four hours.)

We've literally been back for only four days. I had one student email me about the homework so she could get done what I assigned. I had another ask if I got home safely (I knew her from last year when she was in my study hall). My Kanto gym badges came in the mail, the ones I ordered to wear for the cosplay rally that was supposed to be on Friday. My brother found a nail in my tire in a place that is not repairable. I need a new tire (or a used one, rather). I got a free Lofthouse sugar cookie at the grocery store since they are celebrating their 80th anniversary. I also got a red balloon because why not? Everyone likes balloons. (Though I quipped to my brother I was a grown thirty year old woman holding a balloon happily like the children around me. #noshame)

As I was emailing that concerned student back, I got a text. School is cancelled the rest of the week. I figured it would be. The fire is pretty bad, and last I checked, it was only 4% contained. Many people in the area are evacuated. A school in the district is an evac center. So many men and women fighting it on everyone's behalf after that fire near the lake last week. The planes and helicopters could be seen from my house as could the smoke. I saw the orange clouds from Big Bear last night as I drove through the city on my unwanted adventure quest home.

Is this our new normal? Massive fires that burn and burn, destroying lives and history? While Louisiana drowns in excess amounts of water not seen in centuries? As I was leaving school yesterday afternoon. I thought to myself that at least this fire could be used in a lesson later on in the year when I tackle climate change. We are having the hottest year on record yet again. This coupled with the lack of humidity that is normal, the dead plants from almost no rain despite the predicted (and failed, at least in SoCal) El Nino, and the winds that are par the course lay the breeding grounds for fires. It's only going to get worse.

I can teach my students about this very real and science-backed phenomenon, I also despair. The world needs to change, but I am one person. I can make a dent in my classroom, but the world is far too vast for my reach. (Despite some friends' assertions in high school, I was never cut out for politics.)

So while communities near my house burn, while people are displaced and fearful, I still manage to find small happiness in my balloon and gym badges. Then I feel bad. But should I? I don't know. I'm probably overthinking this. I cannot deny I like this small break from school despite having just started. I'm sure the students not affected by the fire feel the same. I'm in no danger, but I hope for the safety of others as I watch the news and keep checking the Inciweb page. I guess I'm just rambling.

At least I have extra time for lesson planning I guess? Or more likely playing games on my phone and not writing in my story.

I'll see.

Nature

The breeze whispers in my ear

A silent tale that none can hear

And the sun reclining in the sky

Watches different passers-by

Dried up leaves upon the floor

Are trampled loudly, nothing more

While water streams by a fallen log

The brush is dense and thick like fog

Let all who come here stop and behold

The one called Nature, Her glory foretold

And look ahead at no other reason

For the days and for the seasons

Just open your eyes so you can see

Her power, Her presence, and Her beauty

-1:01 a.m. 9/3/07

-Revised 9:21 p.m. 9/9/07

The Power of One

The first time I ever saw Pokemon 2000: The Power of One I was only 14.My mom dropped me off with two of my friends and brother. Initially it was another film where we got free cards with an admission ticket and it was Pokemon. The hopeless romantic I am saw and loved the Ash/Misty moments scattered through the whole thing, and I really wanted to see it again both because of that and because I wanted to recreate the fun of hanging out with my friends. We never did see it again in theaters. Maybe a week later we all got caught for sneaking out of the house. It was supposed to be our last time, and I was feeling so invincible. But then we saw his mom’s car. It was a collective ‘oh shit’ moment. He got sent off to New York for three weeks, taking the soundtrack for this movie with him. I found out from Jeanine a week after it happened. I confessed to my mom in Denny’s while we were on vacation in New Mexico, and I was pretty much off the hook. I tell you, that three weeks without him was hell. He wrote, and I wrote. I saved the letters. He had loads of fun, and I was alright. Life was life for the rest of the summer. Then when he came back he had gifts…but I digress (I still have that Bubbles keychain he bought me as well as the pictures he drew and sent).

Rewatching the movie brings back all of that as well as what the movie really means. Some guy disrupts the balance, and all hell breaks loose. It’s commentary on us humans. The Pokemon are all in tune with nature like our animals. They know when something is really wrong and want to fix it. The moral of that movie is that we humans have to live in harmony with nature and with Pokemon (animals). In the real world there is no chosen one who can fix everything by collecting treasures from three islands. The Deep Water Horizon that was leaking uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico for the last two and a half months is proof enough. We all need to be a part of the solution, whatever that is.

Still, I would gladly be that chosen one as naïve as that sounds.