I often make some New Year resolutions (I less often keep them!) To me New Year's resolutions are different from Lenten practices, which tend to be more spiritually oriented.
My New Year's resolutions are sometimes things I don't want to do, but know I need to. This year's joint resolution, together with my husband, is to update our wills. Actually it is to make them in the first place, because we don't have one. Irresponsible, I know, but it's going to be pretty much the same as the one the state has for someone who dies intestate. Also to have in writing medical directives (my husband has one, I don't, except verbally). And funeral plans. We have life insurance policies to cover that. So much fun.
Not quite as weighty, but also needs to be done, start giving away or discarding stuff we don't need and don't use. After being in this house almost 30 years, there's a bunch of that.
Now for predictions. Those are more entertaining to make than wills and funeral plans, but hit and miss as far as actually coming true. My first one is that the Trump and Musk bromance is going to have a break-up, relatively soon. It is going to reflect the larger conflict of interest between the Silicon Valley tech bros, and the actual MAGA populists, especially given the contempt those two factions have for each other.
Another prediction is that at least one, and maybe more, of Trump's cabinet picks isn't going to make the cut. Most likely fail is RFK Jr. Trump is already backpedaling about vaccines, saying that preventing polio is actually a good thing. RFK on the other hand, is hard core anti-vax, and is on record as having exacerbated a measles outbreak in Samoa. He is going to get lots of pushback from Congress.
Another prediction is that Trump will have to deal with a foreign policy crisis before six months have gone by. It might be China, making moves on Taiwan's sovereignty. Or it might be trouble with Mexico. Trump has already antagonized Claudia Sheinbaum. He always has *cute* nicknames for everyone. Hers is Claudia Shiny-bum. But worse than that is not recognizing the help Mexico has already given the US with immigration issues.
Do any of you want to have a go at resolutions or predictions?
My resolutions are: Pay attention, encourage more, consume less.
ReplyDeleteI am not making predictions outside of the fact that the next four years will be deflating. I hope to live long enough to celebrate Trump's political demise, but I am already 2 yrs past my projected expiration date, so time will tell.
A Musk-Trump breakup and an RFK rejection would not surprise me, but their departure would only usher in new and equally horrid people.
Somewhat inspired by my new favorite YouTube personality, Jared Henderson (Commonplace Philosophy on Substack), I am going to make an effort to not buy books this year but read the ones I already own as Kindle books and listen to my Audiobooks. The number of titles I have amassed over the past 15 years or so is startlingly large.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Henderson when he says that buying books and reading books are two different hobbies. In the past year I have done a lot less reading than usual, but I have continued to acquire digital books, audiobooks, and even physical, paper-and-ink books at possibly an accelerated rate.
There are many books that I both want to read and feel I should read (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Wolf Hall, Wide Sargasso Sea, Death Comes for the Archbishop, To the Lighthouse) but this is not a self-improvement project, and I have a lot of mysteries, science fiction that I can turn to as well.
I don't have any specific political predictions, but I do believe Trump is consciously and deliberately trying to damage American decency and democracy as we have known it, and I expect him to keep trying.
I have a lot of books I haven't read, too. I need to refrain from buying more until I read some of the ones I already have.
DeleteI read Death Comes for the Archbishop years ago, it is good.
Wide Sargasso Sea sounds interesting.
I am a serial reader: I read one book at a time, finish it (or, occasionally, give up on it), then buy and start another.
DeleteI don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but this year I have made two: to get our bathroom remodeled, and get my passport renewed. I am going to work on the latter today.
I will buy a Kindle book if it's $2.99 or less. I read them all. But we can order books delivered to our library online, and given the way libraries have been attacked by the right wing, keeping lots of books in circulation is important. I'm doing my part!
DeleteMy hoarding problem is with yarn. I used to run the yarn swap table at the Fiber Festival, so snagged a lot of high-end free stuff that has accumulated. I have started charity knitting projects again, and will unload a lot of scarves, hats, mittens, and baby blankets at Christmas. A lot of people in my family and friend circle will be getting socks this year. And I may, after 65 years of knitting, finally force myself to learn to make a sweater.
My wife asks for gift cards from Joann's whenever Christmas or her birthday rolls around. She uses the cards to buy yarn. I think we have enough yarn now to stock several Joann's stores.
DeleteI agree with the prediction that the Trump/Musk bromance won't make it to the end of 2025. It will end the way virtually all of Trump's relationships end, with him screwing Musk or throwing him under the bus. Although I don't underestimate Musk's capacity to tell Trump to go pound sand.
ReplyDeletePolitically, Musk has become important, not just to Trump personally, but to the entire GOP. I believe his super PAC donations helped fund a lot of Republican campaigns. So when Trump and Musk inevitably break up, Trump will be screwing his party, too. But nothing new about that.
Katherine, I think getting rid of unneeded stuff is a wonderful idea, and I wish you and K all the best in pursuing that.
ReplyDeleteAn aunt passed away recently. Over the course of a long lifetime, she had accumulated an enormous amount of stuff - Victorian furniture, figurines, French mantle clocks, china sets and so on. Multiple cabinets full of bric-a-brac. Now her kids, who are not particularly collectors or accumulators, are burdened with making it all go away.
My sister and I were discussing lately that we feel like curators, of family stuff. Trouble is, we have had no indication that other family members wish to take the heirlooms and mementos off our hands. I have told our kids to please let me know if there are specific things they want. They would get them right now. Otherwise I will open it up later to nieces and nephews. Some things will likely get donated after we are gone, or even before.
DeleteIn my experience, you have to take photos of this stuff and send notices to interested parties: "Come and get it by X date or it's gone." Pain in the rear, but it staves off wailing over the green pressed glass salad set you gave away that suddenly holds precious memories for some overwrought relation.
DeleteLittle bit of a funny story; a few years back I received a package from an aunt, containing a china tea pot and cream and sugar set. It looked vaguely oriental, and was white with silver ornamentation. Kind of pretty, but had some chips and a crack. A note was with it, saying that my mom had given it to the aunt and uncle for their silver anniversary. And she was downsizing and thought of me. I really didn't want it, but thought I'd better write a gracious letter and thank her. So I did. Next time I saw some of my siblings I told them about it. One of my brothers laughed and said, "So you were the lucky one to get that!" Turned out three people had turned it down before it got to me. So much for being the honored one!
DeleteMy Gramma was an inveterate re-gifter. She gave my mom some doodad one day and said, "Do you want this? Somebody years ago gave me this, and I don't care a thing about it." The doodad was something Mom had given her. So the family joke was always to buy Gramma stuff that you'd want to get back as a re-gift.
DeleteI learned long ago not to make predictions or NY resolutions. We have to update our trust and will. Continue to get rid of stuff. And I too have many unread books.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t read this whole article, but these are Politico’s speculations @bout possible 2025 crises.
Deletehttps://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/03/15-unpredictable-scenarios-for-2025-00196309
I eat up dystopian narratives, so that was morbid fun. I think a major cyber attack and new pandemic are inevitable, if not this year certainly in the next 5 years. I think secession is unlikely, but that we'll see more "state's rights" rulings that will underscore regional differences and tensions, and perhaps more ideological migration such that blue states get bluer and reds redder.
DeleteA little morbid speculation I have indulged in is gaming out the end of the world (that is, the end of human life on it) and the Parousia. If it were sin and human wickedness that caused it, it would have happened long ago. My guess is a perfect storm of geological events, such as a meteor like the Chicxulub one 60 million years ago that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The shock waves triggered earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across the world.
DeleteThis is not a prediction, more of a prayer. I join Pope Francis in praying for peace in the Holy Land. I do think there is a point where the war has to stop, hopefully soon.
ReplyDeleteI’m going to parcel out the family memorabilia which, of course, fell into the lap of someone with no heirs. Try to tone down my anger at the way things are by converting it into some sort of activity like anti-genocide demonstrations. Keep learning Polish. Try to love people more instead of wanting to throttle them.
ReplyDeleteA blessed New Year to everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe civil new year is not the time that I usually make plans or resolutions. More likely to do that at the beginning of the Advent for the church year, or at the beginning of September for the parish/school year or the beginning of July for the fiscal year. January 1 comes right in the middle of the Christmas season. Even when I used to make plans for exercise to take off the Christmas pounds it was usually in early February after the gym was less crowded with all the people that were taking off their pounds. I like to keep up the Christmas decorations at least until Candlemas on February 2nd and sometimes until Ash Wednesday.
I am optimistic that the coming year may be a very good one church wise at least for me. Our bishop, who has been here for four years released a pastoral letter on December 17th. I discovered it on the diocesan website on December 29th.
If you remember, last summer he released a Deanery reorganization plan that has a lot of promise about how he is going to manage the diocese. This letter is a very practical grassroots vision addressed to everyone in the diocese empowering everyone to move forward without a lot of management from above. In other words, he is NOT going to manage the deans who will manage pastors who will manage the staff who will manage the parish members.
All the things that I am doing that I had a hard time getting a hearing from the pastoral staff of my parish are central to his vision.
He has asked everyone to read and underline parts of the pastoral and begin talking with their families, friends and neighbors about it. No waiting for pastoral staff to call meetings to explain it to us. I am in the process of posting my underlines, and commentary on one of my websites. (I will be giving you link to the post in a few days).
I am also going to send a link to a deacon friend on pastoral staff (he is actually a full-time paid staff member) rather than the pastor, letting them know indirectly that I am already beginning conversations among my friends. Deacon Bob knows Betty from way back when her daughter was in Catholic High School; he was a teacher there at that time. Her daughter had cancer (which she survived); Bob helped them manage that situation.
Going to be nice to let everyone know that I am just doing what the bishop wants us to do. By the way the pastoral letter says very little about either synodality or Eucharistic renewal. It begins with people's daily lives. More to come shortly.
January 6, which we still celebrate as Epiphany in the Anglican tradition, is the day the Christmas stuff comes down and think about what "gifts" we have to offer God and our neighbors in the coming year. This year I put it on a Post-It sticker so I can keep it on the calendar month to month. I get very distracted with the day-to-day grind by March. I expect my Road to Hell will be paved with those lost good intentions!
DeleteSince we are supposed to be walloped by a big snowstorm tonight our tree will stay up another week. There won’t be tree pickup on Monday. But I would like to keep it up this year anyway - it’s cheerful. I did minimal decorating this year indoors and outdoors. It may be our last Christmas tree in our own place. No outdoor lights, but candles in the windows and a wreath on the door. But the tree is shedding needles and it will have to come down in another week. Christmas was a gift this year though - the grandkids decorated the tree with my husband supervising. He seldom smiles but the grandkids got lots of smiles . Our eldest son and his family bring joy. But they are gone now. It’s the heart of our dilemma - stay here ( I am happier here in our own home than elsewhere) or move near one of the sons so that my husband gets a bit more pleasure out of life as a paralytic.
DeleteWe have lost our 5 day weekday caregiver and only have a part time one for now. Please pray for us to find a new caregiver. TY
Jack, that all sounds very positive for you and Betty. New Years blessings to both of you, and all here.
DeleteOne reason I like to keep the Christmas decorations up is that it often becomes sunny in January as the Lake begins to freeze and Lake effect snows cease (but the snow often remains on the ground).
DeleteAnother reason is that there often is not enough time before Epiphany to enjoy all the liturgical music for the season even if one extends Epiphany to next Sunday, the Feast of the Baptism of Christ. That is where the Julian calendar comes in handy. Christmas doesn't come until Tuesday, January 7th. Theophany (Epiphany) does not come until Sunday, January 19th and Candlemas does not come until February 15th. That is about the time the Orthodox who keep our calendar begin their observances leading up to Lent. That effectively eliminates "Ordinary Time" until Summer, which is just fine with me. Before Vatican II the Sundays after Epiphany were called just that.
I didn't get my Christmas tree and lights up until Dec. 23rd. So they just might stay up until Candlemas. We don't put any outdoor lights up, just the ones on the tree and some across the piano, and some lighted thingys in the front window. I do love seeing the Christmas lights around town, and enjoy it when people keep them up a bit longer.
DeleteIf anyone would like to listen to an interesting podcast which isn't about politics, try this one by Jimmy Akin in which he attempts to narrow down the dates when the four canonical Gospels were written:
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C5dzvoozVfw
Jimmy Akin is different than most of the people on Catholic Answers. He actually cares about research rigor and goes where some of the others don't go. And reaches some conclusions they don't.
DeleteI would say Catholic Answers has changed a lot, from say, a couple decades ago. I don't pay any attention to most of the people on there anymore, with a few exceptions.
JD Vance just needs to go soak his head.
I looked at Catholic Answers a few times long ago and decided it wasn’t a site to return to. Not quite as bad as Father Z, but bad enough to not spend time there. What happened to Z? Did he get excommunicated?
DeleteI hadn't thought of Father Z, aka Father John Zuhlsdorf, in a long time. According to Wikipedia, he is no longer incardinated in the diocese of Madison Wisconsin, apparently after a falling out with his bishop over a livestreamed exorcism. It said he is incardinated in the diocese of Velletri-Segni which is in Italy and is one of those titular historical artifacts. Unclear if it actually has any people nowadays?
DeleteHe has gone pretty far down the Traditionalist rabbit hole.
Re: Cardinal McElroy, Michael Sean Winters has a good article about him on NCR today.
DeleteA couple of years ago I lost the ability to sign in to blogger to initiate a discussion. So I have to do it in a comment. Katherine - None of us really know what happens after death. I assume ( but don’t know with certainty) that souls exist and that somehow they continue on after the body dies. I have no idea where or how, or if there are states of existence that we call heaven and hell. The group in this article focus on reincarnation. I know many Christians focus on reports of near death experiences and the famous light and seeing Jesus. ( since the light is part of near death reports from many cultures and religions, scientists speculate that it has to do with changes in brain chemistry in the near dying brain). I know that non- Christians who report near death experiences often see the light but do not see Jesus rather they see a long dead, loved relative. I have no idea. But I have sometimes thought that reincarnation - a cycle of birth, death and rebirth as one comes closer in each life to enlightenment and can end the cycle, sounds a bit like purgatory - living better in each life, or learning to repent and love in purgatory.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I thought you might be interested in this article even though the focus is reincarnation stories in children rather than near death stories.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/style/virginia-dops-reincarnation.html
That is an interesting article. I have had some thoughts about reincarnation. Mostly I don't believe in it, because I don't see the point of it. If we don't remember our past lives, how can we learn from them, and avoid making the same mistakes? Also, it seems like it would be too easy to "blame the victim", they must have done something bad in their past life or they wouldn't be suffering so much in this one.
DeleteBut I suppose God could reincarnate people if he wanted to. I just devoutly pray that he doesn't want to. I have no desire to come back to life on earth. Not because I have had a bad life; I have had a very good one. I just want what Jesus promised, "... I go to prepare a place for you..that where I am you also may be."
One of the comments after this article put forth an interesting idea:
Delete"One clue to resolving this problem might be in a much deeper understanding of human genes. We appear to be born with knowledge that is not acquired through education, formal or otherwise. Animals know many things as part of their heritage and we call this instinct. It seems there is much more to it.
A scientist who studies birds has found that one bird, the Wherry, leaves its southern winter home, Brazil, much earlier if the hurricane season ahead is likely severe. How could this small animal acquire such understanding and act on it? A sound reason to leave early is obvious: the birds would not be able to cross the Atlantic ocean and return to North America in the high winds of a storm."
"It appears that some aspects of knowledge are stored and passed along to successive generations in many types of animals. Recent studies of humans has indicated that traumatic experiences of one generation are passed along to the next, indicating that the impact of wars and other horrid events continues long afterward"
With children, there is also the possibility of telepathy or clairvoyance, they seem to be tuned in to picking up other people's wavelengths sometimes.
My daughter in law has a type of epilepsy. Fortunately she hasn't had an episode in over a decade. But she has said that prior to the episodes (they aren't really seizures) she had a strong sense of deja vu. And I have read that that is often a symptom of epilepsy. So there is the possibility that some memories of past lives may have a neurological cause.
What I dislike about reincarnation regarding how it exists in Hinduism is how it relates to the caste system. If you’re a good dahlit, can you work your way up the ladder to brahmin? And if you’re an untouchable, is it because you were a good dog or a really bad brahmin? Is it another version of Calvinism. Seems to serve to justify a hierarchical social system. Well, even if it were so, you still have to have some new souls since the population is growing exponentially. And if there’s a dieback due to climate catastrophe, there’s going to be a big waiting line.
DeleteYah, well, the Afterlife is a handy way to manipulate people in many religions. Hell, whether it exists or not, is sometimes used to keep people in line to maintain a hierarchical clerical system.
DeleteI think it behooves people to consider that whatever the Church teaches about what happens in the Hereafter is likely a very rough and imperfect approximation seen thru the proverbial glass darkly.
Eternal mysteries are always fun to think about, but I feel inclined to focus more on what Jesus wants us to do in this life and to leave what happens after we die up to God.
Jean, I agree with you that religion uses fear tactics to manipulate people. I also gave up worrying about heaven, hell etc many years ago. I posted the story because Katherine has contributed several links to stories related to near death experiences and/or the afterlife. Like Stanley, I dislike the caste system. It is causing disruption in the tech sectors of both Silicon Valley and Seattle with complaints by some Indian engineers that their higher caste supervisors discriminate against them. This has led to legislation being proposed to prohibit job discrimination based on caste along with race, gender etc. Perhaps Jim has some knowledge of this since he works with Indian colleagues. Reincarnation makes little sense. But Christian beliefs make little sense to non- Christians. No other religion claims that a human being was also God. I once overheard a backseat discussion among boys I was driving to soccer practice. One of the Jewish boys said to my son “ We believe there is only one God. But your religion has three Gods”. Few 8 year olds understand the Trinity - few adults do either. I have struggled with it since the nun at my parochial school held up a shamrock to explain it. Unfortunately it didn’t. I eventually decided that each person of the Trinity was simply one face of the one God. God could do anything, including taking on human form. Many years later as an adult I learned that my rationalization of the Trinity is an official heresy!
DeleteHindus have a whole lot of divinities. A raised christian Caucasian former colleague of mine is a convert to Hinduism. Every year he went to India for a two week retreat. He told me that the many gods and goddesses represent different facets of God. Interestingly enough, they have a Trinity also “ The three main Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, are known as the Trimurti. They are considered the three forms or faces of Brahman, the ultimate reality. “ I have seen statues with the three heads n one body.
People pray to the other minor gods and goddesses in much the same way as Catholics pray to saints that represent different things.
Yes, I am fascinated by near death experiences. One of my favorite podcasts is the priest who prays for "stuck souls" who passed over in traumatic circumstances. ( I guess that's not actually "near death" though) I take it all with a grain of salt, I reckon we'll all find out when we get there. But interesting to speculate now.
DeleteAnne, your mention of all the gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion made me think of a discussion I had with my husband a number of years ago. We had watched the movie "Sybil", about a woman who had dissociative disorder and had many personalities.
DeleteI have has experienced telepathy though with a living person and know a couple of others who have , - but they were identical twins. I think there is a great deal we haven’t a clue about when it comes to understanding the mind.
DeleteI'm not quite sure if there is a firm line between telepathy and clairvoyance, but I have experienced that a few times.
DeleteSometimes it does seem as if we get signs from the dead. My mom loved cardinals. She had a bird feeder and watched them from the kitchen window. Family members used to give her cardinal shirts, cardinal calendars, etc. for gifts. One New Year's day after she had passed away I was rather discouraged and depressed about some difficulties we were facing . Something prompted me to look out in the back yard. There was a lone bright red cardinal against the snow on the ground. "Okay, Mom!" I laughed. She was never one for moping around. Other family members have experienced similar things. Cardinals are not that common here. Maybe coincidence? Who knows!
Your mom would have loved our back yard. We have always had cardinals, but this winter we have a new high cardinal population visiting our feeder - four separate pairs of cardinals. We have more than a dozen different kinds of birds at our feeder now.
DeleteI have no problem with the Trinity AT ALL. Studying modern physics helped. Stimulated emission in lasers was beyond me until I gave up common sense. CS wasn’t the proper mental tool. Once I stood back from the problem, spun around until I was dizzy and looked again, I finally said “oooooohh”. Same thing with the mathematics of imaginary numbers. God is Unity is Plurality. Does it make sense like the well pressure tank replacement I just did? No. Does it make sense in my existential life in the world among other beings? Yeah, I really think so. I think that Mystery is all around us.
DeleteStanley, I think mystery is all around us too!
DeleteMy GP, now sadly retired, worked at a VA hospital and was familiar with the effects of loss and trauma. I mentioned that I was having terrible nightmare "visits" from my mother for about a year after she died. It got so I didn't want to go to sleep. During the day, I would zone out with equally upsetting "day dreams."
DeleteDoc said that experience is very common when there has been an accumulation of stressful events. The mind has quite a capacity to recreate and synthesize things from your memory banks and make them very vivid.
I'd say this is one area where ritual and prayer can help banish these "visitations." At least it worked for me. I don't know if my mother is at now peace, but she no longer keeps me up at night.
I often "hear" my dad and gramma making comments in my head, and sometimes I have a very pleasant sensory dream about my departed cats Edgar and Butch. I enjoy the comments and purrs, and am happy my the wiring in my memory can conjure them occasionally.
Jean, I'm glad your dreams are more peaceful now. I have had some disturbing ones after family members have died too.
DeleteAlso some about pets. One kind of funny but touching one was about hearing a scratching at the door. I opened the door and it was a beloved childhood dog who has been gone for over 50 years. The thought occurred to me, if I am seeing a dead dog, does that mean I'm dead too?
In the week before he died (at 104!), my great-uncle had very vivid hallucinations. He would come back to lucidity to report what he had seen from what he called "the train station." He said it was like an arrival and departure terminal where the living and the dead were milling around. His father showed up and, even though they didn't get along in life, his dad shook his hand and was happy to see him. He seemed quite happy.
DeleteMakes me think of this poem:
Deletehttps://allpoetry.com/poem/16173387-The-Train-of-Life-by-Vincent-Moore
M just lost her cat of 13 years to lymphoma. I and another male friend dug a hole in the back yard, laid him in a fetal position with a toy and covered him. She and her daughter are very depressed. The cat only liked the two of them but I’m sorry, too. I only got to pet him in death. Couldn’t get near him in life. I’m not one to have a pet but I do like the little and not-so-little critters.
DeletePlease pass along my prayers to M. I got 7 cat graves in my yard. They get buried with three cat treats and some catnip in case they need to bribe the cat boatman who ferries them to Cat Heaven, which is full of small hapless rodents and everybody gets a furnace register eternally blasting warm air.
DeleteThanks, Jean. That cat was very loved and had the best cat life. And sometimes, a pellet burning stove at full blast.
DeleteAnne, have your son and family been affected by the fires in the Los Angeles area?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking. They aren’t in any immediate danger. They live on “ the flats” - the flat part of the San Fernando Valley. The fires are mostly in the hills and canyons that have a lot of trees and brush. As my son said, that’s where the rich people live because of the natural beauty and the views. They can’t afford those neighborhoods. One good thing about not being a multimillionaire in SoCal. They have had not a drop of rain in months. The electricity has gone off and on and they are having occasional trouble with getting cell phone signals so some towers might have been damaged. Their kids school closed today. It was open yesterday but it’s a bit farther west ( toward Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades area) so the smoke might be getting too bad there. But there are also fires north and east of their home so the smoke might get bad. My son can see smoke but it’s not yet close enough to them to be choking them. The Santa Ana winds are an annual thing, usually strong, fanning fires, but nothing like the winds in this event. 30 - 50 mph sometimes but not 80-100. A friend of theirs has had to vacate twice. She went to a friends house first not too far from her home in Altadena and then they both had to evacuate. We have friends living in a couple of the evacuation warning areas. This is the worst fire they’ve had in many years and it may get a lot worse. Thank goodness trump isn’t in yet. He refused to give federal aid to some of the fire devastated areas in Northern California when he was in office. He eventually got pushed into it but he hates California and doesn’t want to ever help them in emergencies. Biden will get them the aid they will need.
DeleteIt will be interesting if a CAT5 rolls over Mar-a-lago in the next four years. I’ll have to take anti-shadenfreude pills.
DeleteM’y son just texted me that their friend who had to evacuate has lost her home. Nothing left. She started 2024 with cancer, had surgery etc and was feeling positive. Her name is Carla. Prayers for Carla and all the others - even the millionaires, which Carla is not- whose homes and neighborhoods and businesses have gone up in smoke, literally. More than 1000 homes and businesses have burned so far. Two rookie have died - in the same fire that cost Carla her home, but thank God sh evacuated in time.
DeleteI hope, when they rebuild, they build fireproof. Monolithic dome homes are an example. I’m afraid we have to build for a different world. I don’t know how much of this specific event is due to climate change. Yes, these things have always happened, but frequency and intensity can be worse.
DeleteFires are an annual event in California. In SoCal, the Santa Ana winds are an annual event, usually during the fall months. January is a bit late. Summer until February is fire season, but they Santa Anas usually don’t arrive until fall and then fire season gets really dangerous.
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_winds
It usually rains in February and March, sometimes January and April an occasional,( very occasional) summer rain. There was a huge fire a few years ago just north of the San Fernando Valley, in Ventura and Santa Barbara. We looked at homes in Ventura a couple of years later. On many streets there were no houses left, only lots. Builders were buying the lots - 15=minutes from the ocean and very often views. The new homes were made of concrete I think, and steel instead of wood four by eights - very contemporary. Fireproof roofs. No trees or foliage left and the county would subsidize specific kinds of landscaping. People in the Midwest get tornados and floods, The east coast gets hurricanes. The Midwest also gets floods and blizzards. The mi- Atlantic where we are and you are, is less prone to these natural disasters, although hurricanes sometimes bring flooding to the Chesapeake Bay and rivers. But building new homes should always take in the potential for these disasters. Florida dramatically tightened building codes about 30 years because of hurricanes.
My son just texted me the photo their friend took of her house. Her entire neighborhood burned.The only thing left that is visible of her home is the chimney. Everything is ash. She’s “heartbroken, sad, scared, shattered”. And this is true of more than 1000 families now and the fires are still 0% contained.
DeletePeople in the east have often asked me how I lived there with the earthquakes - isn’t that scary? No,I was never worried about earthquakes, which are rare, and now do little damage because of the construction methods they adopted back in the 70s.,
My fear has always been fires, having been closer to forest fires than was comfortable a few times, growing up in a national forest. Many of the most beautiful neighborhoods in LA are in the hills, surrounded by trees and brush, but only one road out. I never wanted to live in one of those areas - in the foothills and canyons, even if I could afford the homes. Altadena, where their friend’s home was, isn’t really a neighborhood like that - not really a canyon neighborhood in the hills, but more an older, settled suburban area near the base of the foothills, but now at least part of it too has been destroyed. My son sent photos of the smoke as seen from his home - heavy smoke to the SW where Pacific Palisades and SantaMonica are, and smoke from the SE fires where their friends home was.
My daughter in law just posted this on Facebook - A public service announcement. There is a lot of wildlife in the hills and c@nyons, including wildcats and bears. Pacific Palisades is very posh - lots of movie stars, the Reagan’s home, lots of rich and important people. This is the notice they got
DeletePhoto by Deb Bloom (Feldstein) on January 07, 2025. May be an image of dog and text that says 'PSA: If you're near the Palisades fires, please be mindful that wild animals are fleeing the flames and may show up in your yards. The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection advises bringing your pets indoors at night to give wildlife a safe path to pass through. Consider leaving out buckets of water for these animals-the are scared, exhausted, and may have lost their homes. A little kindness can help them recover and survive. @puppyluvia'.
For reference:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/prdpHYelN9o?feature=shared
A friend who lived in southern California for 30 yrs moved back to Michigan, partly because too many potential cataclysms like this are looming. She's tired of living with a go-bag by the front door.
DeleteMost folks who have lived in California hate it here--the snow, the bad roads, the MAGA majority, the cultural deserts, the lack of scenery, limited fresh produce, the preponderance of old people, the obesity, dearth of places to plug in the EV--but the things they loved about the West Coast are passing away. It's been tough for my friend to readjust.
Raber thinks that Michigan will get more climate refugees in the coming decades, and is advising The Boy to invest in land instead of cats.
Stanley, the domes are interesting but I’m not sure that they would appeal to most buyers - aesthetics are important too. In Ventura, many of the post- fire new builds are fire resistant but not necessarily fireproof. More like this home.
DeleteWhen we looked in that area every street had some houses still standing while their neighbors homes were gone. There are building materials and techniques that increase the odds of surviving a fire.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5558-Crestone-Ct_Ventura_CA_93003_M10671-94689?from=srp-list-card
The dome houses are interesting. I would have to have windows though.
DeleteNebraska has plenty of eccentric people, so we have some weird houses. There are dome ones, but they are mostly geodesic ones that have multiple facets. There are underground homes in disused missile silos (southwestern part of state), homes or barns in upcycled WWII ammo bunkers (south central). And some built into the side of a hill, their energy costs are very low. Some houses are built in grain bins that appear on FB or Instagram with tricked out interiors. And pioneer era sod houses or bailed hay ones. If you plaster or stucco the exterior and interior, and have a wooden frame, they last quite a long time.
Yes, the domes are different. Some have eight feet of vertical wall (stem walls). You can have as many windows as you wish. I have toured domes and it is the insides that I find extremely appealing and cozy. We as a species DID live in caves and huts for eons. As for the outsides, I like the honesty. It looks like what it is and does. I’ve seen so many McMansions showing fake-ish exteriors with fake brick snd fake Tudor. I guess it’s my gritty personality. A dome can be underground and have no exterior but you lose windows for light pipes. I could also pretend I’m a Hobbit.
DeleteI’m afraid that I would have to be a Hobbit to be able to live in a dome home. My husband and I toured a ( wooden) dome home in a resort area, with lots of windows. I even found that house to be claustrophobic. Just as there are now earthquake proof building techniques in California that have successfully minimized damage and deaths even from strong earthquakes, there are materials, building and landscaping techniques in California to minimize fire danger. But I still wouldn’t choose one of the neighborhoods with a single escape route. People die from the smoke too. What is most unusual about this event is that it is January, but my son said today that there has only been 0.16 “ of rain in LA since last May. And the winds are so much stronger than usual, at hurricane force at times. The fires move so fast that the spread is awful. Wind blows embers into previously less fire prone areas like his friend’s neighborhood. Another friend of mine who now lives in DC but did live in LA calked me today to check on our son. One of her good friends has also lost her home - in the Palisades fire.
DeleteJean, California is unique - an irrigated desert along the coasts. In LA an athlete could surf in the morning, ski in the afternoon and finish up the day in a swimming pool hot tub in the desert, with a glass of wine, admiring the spectacular scenery and sunset. Everything within one or two hours drive of the cities from the Mexican border to north of San Francisco. High mountains, hundreds of miles of beaches. Fantastic desert resorts. Museums, restaurants of every type and price, top notch state universities and colleges. But very expensive, urban problems - especially homelessness since many red states put homeless folk on buses with a one way ticket and send them to California and just dump them somewhere on the streets - a major, major problem now. Living costs prompted many to move during Covid when they were allowed to work virtually - mostly to Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. Or Hawaii if they weren’t too concerned about cost of living. They are slowly but surely turning AZ purple. Colorado is blue.
DeleteWhen I accompanied my friend Steve on his vacation to LA, we hiked exactly where the wildfire occurred. It was a beautiful view. Even though these events always occurred in this area, I believe climate change is amplifying the severity and frequency. There have been some sardonic comments about Oprah Winfrey buying up the land now as her corporate instruments did in Hawaii after that similar fire. Disaster capitalism, as Naomi Klein calls it, is apparently the most effective capitalism. The people in LA may have deep enough pockets to be immune. It’s we peasants that get swept out of the way.
DeleteThat's where she'll build her post apocalyptic bunker.
DeleteAnne, Michigan is unique, too, but not in any way the coastal denizens wanna hear about.
DeleteJean, I’m at the point where I believe everything bad the coastals say about the centrals and everything bad the centrals say about the coastals. The good stuff, what there is of it, not so sure.
DeleteI'm busy saying bad stuff about Michigan in hopes nobody moves here. We used to vacation on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan until the feds paid for a big new marina to increase tourism. That's when the rich scum from Chicago sailed up there in their Ralph Lauren polos and Sperry Topsiders and subdivided, over-developed, and cordoned off everything. Used to be able to have a full breakfast on the rickety porch for $5.50 at the local bar with the added excitement of seagulls dive-bombing your plate. Haven't been there in 20 years. A last remnant of Michigan frontier gentrified. We need a state law prohibiting out-of-staters north of Traverse City.
DeleteLOL! We don't have to worry about summer people and tourists spoiling things here. We do that all by ourselves.
DeleteThough people in my hometown gripe about Coloradoans overfishing Lake McConaughy. Overfishing to them means keeping what you catch. But I don't know what they're complaining about, Game and Parks restocks every year. The locals want the the Colorado dollars, they just don't want to put up with the people.
Jean, I read a few escape novels a few years ago that were set on one of the lakes in Michigan.I forget the details, but these novels did such a good job with the settings that they made me wish I could go there and be a tourist in one of these small towns. I hope they aren't ALL destroyed.
DeleteStanley, Oprah bought her properties in Maui before the fires. Apparently they are fairly remote in a rural area, and many locals were pleased because then the land would be protected from new development.
DeleteMany Michigan towns were charming 50 years ago. Not so much now. The loss of manufacturing, the big box stores that killed family business, and the brain drain of young people has made this a very different place than I remember. Great place to be if you like to gamble at the casinos, shop at Dollar General, and want to catch fish loaded with microplastic, mercury, and PCP. My doc told me not to eat any Great Lakes fish when I was pregnant, and that was 30 years ago. Ate a lot of it growing up, and three of six cousins have blood cancers. We still have a nice state park system thanks to the CCC effort back in the Depression, but how long that can last is dicey.
DeleteJean, I used to follow a website called Stella Maris by a retired priest called Fr. Kropf, very Teilhardian. He lived in a cabin in the Michigan woods, chopped his own firewood. Sounded good to me. If I ever move to Michigan, it’ll be a cabin in the woods. I’ll bother nobody except maybe Sasquatch.
ReplyDeleteFr Kropf was very well known hereabouts. He taught and ministered around the Lansing area quite a bit and was big in ecumenical circles. He went up by Gaylord after receiving permission to live as an anchorite. He died up there in October last year. He was 92.
DeleteThanks for the news, Jean. Sorry to hear he is gone. I liked his writings and his amateur astronomy. Great to hear he was known in your area.
DeleteIt is very disturbing that apparently a lot of red state folk are being very nasty, mocking California online because of the fires.
ReplyDeleteI’m assuming they’re mocking them because of water policies taking into account preservation of endangered species. Water isn’t as effective as flame retardant, the red powder. If it burns and it is in Southern California, it will eventually burn, especially given climate change. The red states like Florida and Texas have their own climate change problems and will continue to have these problems. Hopefully, these attitudes and comments are coming from a small subset of the reddies and the rest are still human.
DeleteYes, lots of "God is punishing them" tripe. There's some crazy non-denom church in the next town, and one of its parishioners has a sign to that effect that she likes to wave around on street corners whenever something bad happens out there. They never seem to think God is sending them messages when tornados, ice storms, and Cat 5 hurricanes sweep through their territory. They make me see red.
Delete"Hopefully, these attitudes and comments are coming from a small subset of the reddies and the rest are still human."
DeleteStanley, I think you are right. Unfortunately an effect of social media is that the most ignorant and mean-spirited people, who thankfully are a minority, have this outsized megaphone. For one's mental health, don't engage, walk on by.
The fire detectives are examining possible causes.One is climate change because of the timing of the winds being January - usually sept - Nov. Sometimes in December but January is later than normal. So far they have ruled out lightening, and they have no reports of utility wires being downed or damaged. Sometimes people do dumb things like make a fire in a no fires zone, or set off fireworks. But I’m wondering about arson, especially for the fires that started after the Palisades fire. Even the Palisades fire could be arson - some people truly hate the rich and Pacific Palisades is a very, very rich celebrity community. The others might be copycat arson fires.
DeleteA fad around here is fire pits, or fire basins. They are for people who want to sit outside in their yard with a group of friends and drink beer in the winter. Not something we want to do, but whatever. A lot of landlords don't allow them because of property damage when people aren't careful, or they are too close to the building. If people were doing something like that in dry and windy conditions, it could have spread.
DeleteOf course there are arsonists who just want to burn it all up, too.
At bottom, it was an accident waiting to happen. The NYT has a column from a climate scientist who moved a while ago from the disaster area. He knew the potential for the catastrophic fire snd when he had an opportunity to move his family to NC, he did. It’s like having a house on a bed of dynamite. Sooner or later.
DeleteYes - people are always talking about “ the big one”, referring to a catastrophic earthquake. But the catastrophic fire danger has long been a greater threat. We may move back there at some point ( but the longer we stay in our own home the more I want to stay) but I learned long ago that researching the fault maps and fire maps before choosing an area are very important unless you’re willing to assume a lot more risk than I am comfortable with. Also need an assessment in areas prone to landslides after heavy rains. There have been homes in Pacific Palisades at the ocean end that have slid down the cliff to the Pacific Coast Highway. But I don’t think many Californians ( except for the northeast rural areas that are trump country) would move to a red state. NC is almost purple, but not yet.
DeleteThe country is currently moving by self- selection from red or blue areas to the opposite if they aren’t comfortable with their neighbors. Colorado yes - Idaho, no way for most Californians.
I think most states have blue parts and red parts. It tends to be rural vs urban. But it's more complicated than that. Rural people have kids who moved to more urban areas for jobs.
DeleteCalifornians get screwed in the Senate where their huge population gets two lousy seats. If they moved en masse to some of these low population states, they could flip them. Wyoming has 584,000 residents. Even if Wyoming were 100% Repub, 585,000 Democratic California Democrats could fix that. California has 40M souls. Veni, vidi, vici.
DeleteWyoming is gorgeous. But it doesn’t have the infrastructure of good jobs that California has - and it has very cold winters! That’s why so many go to Arizona if they want to leave. It may get too hot there though. My trump loving brother lives there - last summer they had more than 100 days in a row of above 100 degree weather. If I were still in Calif and truly wanted to escape I would probably look at NC, especially since it’s teetering on the brink of turning blue and has blue cities here and there. Virginia has mild winters and not too many natural disasters and it is turning blue too. California gets screwed on electoral votes also.
DeleteCorrection - above 110 degree days.
DeleteAnother change of topic - I can’t initiate unfortunately. Maybe David could help me out. Every time there has been a change in the blogspot program I lose access for posting a new topic. This time I haven’t found a workaround.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is just a bit of gossip about the H1B visa controversy. I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds possible since it involves Musk.
I did not know until it made the news that roughly 75% of these visas go to Indian nationals, especially in the tech sector. Apparently Musk relies on Indian Engineers here on H1B visas. I have been told that he prefers them not just because of their educations and expertise, but because they are willing to work -60-80 hour weeks and American born engineers are not. The rumor is that he holds the visas over their heads - if they don’t work enough hours he will withdraw sponsorship. If this is true, then it’s not only the crop pickers and meat packers and janitors who are being exploited.
I can believe it; Musk is such a piece of work. I don't think he is mentally stable. Autism spectrum has been mentioned, but right now it looks to me more like the manic phase of bipolar.
DeleteI don't think he cares who he exploits. People who used to work for Twitter said basically that he is a slave driver.
I also think Musk has a psychiatric illness. Trump does but that hasn’t stopped him. Now that Musk has apparently bought the WH, he is moving on to buy elections in the UK and Germany, donating tens of millions to the far right wing parties and spreading lies via X, formerly known as Twitter. Let’s pray that the Europeans are smarter than Americans. I’m sure he will move on to France and Canada to try to buy their next governments also. Hungary is already n that camp. Maybe he and trump and Putin are hoping to rule the world - literally.
DeleteMusk has a bad case of hubris. What is the saying, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
DeleteHe needs to be careful who he pisses off.. But he doesn't strike me as a careful person.
If Musk wants to rule the world, he should have taken over China. He’s hopped onto an aging horse.
DeleteMy son sent a new photo from his home. The Palisades fire has now shifted direction toward the east, climbing to the NE side of the Santa Monica mountains. The Getty Museum (a gorgeous mountaintop site) is in danger. He can see not just the glow of the fire now, but flames - visible in the photo.
ReplyDeleteLosing everything is a true catastrophe for normal folk. But even the multimillionaires who have lost their homes might grieve - they can replace them and all their stuff, but if their houses were truly homes, they also feel the loss. They may have checked into luxury hotels now instead of the shelters in churches and rec. centers, but if their homes were real homes instead of just showcases for their wealth they feel it too. I knew people like that when I was in college in LA. Multimillionaire friends - nice girls (while I was there on full scholarship) lost their homes in Malibu and Bel Air fires. I had no money, so a couple of them would discretely lend me one of their own gowns for formal dances. (they still had formal dances at Catholic colleges in those days) One classmate’s father became my father too for the Father-Daughter dinner dance so that I could attend. They were an old California family, not Hollywood - descended from the early Spanish land grant families ( given land by the King of Spain) after Father Serra and the Franciscans settled the state.. My father was alive but he had not been part of my life for many years. Lots of photos in this story. Some of my college friends families were multimillionaires, but they too could be kind. The parents were conventional rich, sitting on the boards of charities, donating millions to local charities (including the Catholic colleges - those that they had a connection to anyway) I once had an interesting discussion with one of the rich girls about money. I was arguing that although it didn’t prevent problems, it gave the means to try to solve them. Her brother was a drug addict and the family was spending a fortune to try to help him. She envied me because I was “smart” and good grades were easy, while she had to work much harder for average grades. But two things made me aware of the flip side. She said that when someone wanted to date me, it was because they liked me. She said that very often her suitors seemed more interested in her fathers wealth than in her. She also was devastated to wake up one morning in the dorm to the news ( conveyed initially by the nuns-but on TV and radio) that professional burglars had invaded her home, tied up her parents etc and robbed them. Thank God that they weren’t the kind we have now who just would have shot them before looting the house. Another rich friend from a big Catholic family ( 7 kids) eventually revealed to some of us that her mother was an alcoholic and that whenever home, the children ( and the full time housekeeper) searched this huge house every day to try to find the booze their mother had hidden. Much harder for those from normal families dealing with addiction who can’t afford help.
https://apnews.com/article/southern-california-wildfires-la-022c6588ac472f227b522ffd6552a642
The Michigan DSS in conjunction with city police trained to deal with mental health issues and municipal council on aging were literal lifesavers when my mother fell into a drinking-drug-depression crisis after Dad died. The wealthy can pay for private interventions and care. As DOGE looks to make government more efficient, expect safety nets for the unwashed masses to fall by the way for ordinary folks. All of us will need to tighten our belts so that Musk and the other billionaires can get fat on government contracts or by privatizing and raising prices on services that taxes used to pay for--the post office, community policing, mental health services, public health departments, etc.
DeleteUnfortunately Jean, I think you are right.
DeleteFortunately for LA now they will have help. Insurance in the future will also go the way of coastal Florida which now depends on the feds for insurance. California will get Federal aid because it isn’t January 20 th yet.
Some of the uber- rich there are advertising their own private foundations for mental health etc. Even Harry and Meghan went down to,Pasadena to hand out food and are advertising charitable helping agencies on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex website. Their home survived the Montecito/ Ventura fire a few years ago and Meghan was a Hollywood kid. They have lots of friend in the Palisades I’m sure!
Thanks for the memories, Anne. And good point that losing a place that was home is more than losing shelter (granted, that those who have money won't be without shelter for very long)
DeleteI read that at least 10 people have died, praying that there won't be more loss of life and injury, with either the residents or the fire fighters.
I have a cousin in Huntington Beach, I don't know how close that is to the fires. She's a second cousin, and our paths didn't cross often when we were growing up, but we connected on Facebook (sometimes social media is useful). I will have to check in with her. She is going through cancer treatment, and I hope she is far away from the fires.
Fortunately Huntington Beach is a long way south, in Orange County. It’s a popular surfing town on the beach - it doesn’t have a lot of heavily wooded hills, and is quite urban, and should be fairly safe there.
DeleteThat's good to know. I have another cousin (first cousin once removed) who lives in Orange, CA. She's in her 90s, Dad was always fond of her. I hope she is okay.
DeleteAmericans tend to be responsive to each other in an immediate crisis. We enjoy our adrenalin buzz, swooping in, and making sure people are fed, warm, and safe. But Americans burn out fast after the initial crisis and get frustrated when things like wildfires, hurricanes, mass shootings, and other catastrophes need long-term solutions. Every so often, a feature story revisits a disaster many months or years down the road, and people are still struggling to rebuild or circumstances seem ripe for a repeat. So often, when the initial effort fails to set the situation to rights, we start blaming the victims for being lazy or stupid for not being able to start over, move away, or get themselves together.
DeleteJean, you are right about this. I have noticed it over the years - there is a short attention span for victims of natural disasters and people do eventually stop being empathetic towards their long- term plight.
DeleteOne more and then I’ll quit. Those here are readers. It’s difficult trying to explain the « differentness » of the Santa Ana winds.But they do feel very different from normal winds.
DeleteI read a quote yesterday from Joan Didion writing in 1968.
“There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sand storms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to flashpoint. For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it”.
It’s not only the obliteration of one’s home but the entire neighborhood, the entire context, landmarks, hangouts. If it is rebuilt, will it ever be the same? This is also what was done to Gaza, but as a decision and commitment of human will, with industrial military might instead of natural causes.
DeleteI have only been in California once; Fresno and Yosemite National Park. But to me growing up in the 50s and 60s in the midwest , California had an aura of glamour. It was a dreamland where there were oceans and beaches and palm trees. And movie stars and Disneyland. Part of me envied relatives who lived there. I am happy to be where I am, but in an alternative reality it would have been fun to be in California in the 50s and 60s.
DeleteI am praying for the people there that they can rebuild their lives.
Fresno is not a tourist town - were you visiting friends or relatives? Or were you staying there as a gateway to Yosemite - which is definitely a wonderful tourist attraction . SoCal in the 50s and 60 ‘s was a great place to grow up. We moved to the mountains in 57. Our home until then was in the San Fernando Valley, 5 miles from where our son lives now.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Fresno visiting relatives on my husband's side. They were very gracious hosts, and took us to some interesting places, including Yosemite National Park and one of the redwood groves with the ancient trees. Also the mission San Juan Bautista, and Monterey, where the Monterey Bay Aquarium is. Fresno seemed like a nice town.
DeleteDavid, how to I regain access as a contributor? I don’t know what happened, but I can no longer sign in to begin a thread.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I am not sure I have your email address. Did you ever use the name Annie and have a Yahoo address?
ReplyDeleteDavid, I got knocked off the site several times. Not sure why. I created multiple emails for that account - they all started with Annie…. And the last one that worked, until a few months ago, ended in ng - for NewGathering . They were all Gmail except way back when it was yahoo
DeleteI had to sign out of my other gmail accounts and sign in to the NG account which was used only for starting a thread. I have a subscription/ news account that I would like to use - it’s probably the first Annie gmail account that I used after stopping with yahoo. Because I wouldn’t have to sign out of that account to post as a contributor instead of simply make comments
DeletePlease send me the Gmail address you would like to use at NGAdministrator@proton.me. I find the instructions for Blogger rather confusing, but if a Gmail account is not absolutely required, I don't know how to get around it. I will send you an invitation to be an author as soon as I get the address.
Delete