Why is it that when you have time to write, you have to clean a closet? It’s ridiculous but something I face all the time. My brain KNOWS how to clean a closet, but to edit a short story? It’s not like I haven’t edited before. But my brain just thinks it’s unsafe. I wonder if there will ever be a time when my writing isn’t so consequential to my brain. I did finally start editing, btw. Just took forever to get there.
I am devastated hearing about all the loss in California. It’s terrible. My son is living in LA and I am pretty annoying with the everyday check-ins. Poor kid!
A friend on Facebook shared this https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10162446437922722&set=a.10151747096117722 quoted here:
Mike Davis, about thirty years ago: “Malibu, meanwhile, is the wildfire capital of North America and, possibly, the world. Fire here has a relentless staccato rhythm, syncopated by landslides and floods. The rugged 22-mile-long coastline is scourged, on the average, by a large fire (one thousand acres plus) every two and a half years, and the entire surface area of the western Santa Monica Mountains has been burnt three times over the twentieth century. At least once a decade a blaze in the chaparral grows into a terrifying firestorm consuming hundreds of homes in an inexorable advance across the mountains to the sea. Since 1970 five such holocausts have destroyed more than one thousand luxury residences and inflicted more than $1 billion in property damage. Some unhappy homeowners have been burnt out twice in a generation, and there are individual patches of coastline or mountain, especially between Point Dume and Tuna Canyon, that have been incinerated as many as eight times since 1930.
“From the time of the Tapias, the owners of Rancho Malibu had recognized that the region’s extraordinary fire hazard was shaped, in large part, by the uncanny alignment of its coastal canyons with the annual “fire winds” from the north: the notorious Santa Anas, which blow primarily between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, just before the first rains. Born from high-pressure areas over the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, the Santa Anas become hot and dry as they descend avalanche-like into Southern California. The San Fernando Valley acts as a giant bellows, sometimes fanning the Santa Anas to hurricane velocity as they roar seaward through the narrow canyons and rugged defiles of the Santa Monica Mountains. Add a spark to the dense, dry vegetation on such an occasion and the hillsides will explode in uncontrollable wildfire.”
I’ve been pondering why humans do stupid things. We all do dumb things. Some of us, all the time. Turns out there was even a scientific study about it. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289615001233
According to the study, there are three reasons that people do what is likely to be called stupid – the imbalance of confidence and ability, lack of attention, and/or impulsiveness. I admit, I can be impulsive, I don’t always pay attention, and I can be under-confident, so I’ve done some dumb stuff. Would I have bought a house in that neighborhood? Likely yes – tinderbox or no, it’s beautiful. It would have made me so happy to have a place in a gorgeous natural landscape. I wonder what role happiness plays in doing stupid things. I guess, you think you’ll be happy, but one of the three get in the way. Dumb and heartbreaking.
If you have a chance and a dime or two, I’m a fan of Chef Andres. I’m sure there are other places accepting donations.
So how can I use that information for my characters? I’m working on a short story now about a woman who traps ghosts because she wants to find her sister who died. Kidnapping ghosts, or anyone, is kinda dumb, so I think I can explore her motivation, overconfidence, and make the story better. The one thing I haven’t thought about are the consequences for said overconfidence. Do dumb stuff, get dumb results, right? More to come!
And then there’s me, cleaning my closet instead of writing like I should. My brain trying to protect me. Does it make me happy, does it make me stupid?
peace out -x