burn fires, burn

it's natural. it's how natural revitalizes itself. nature shoots down some lightning and burns a bunch of forest until it's all burned out, then the ashes revitalize the soil and more things grow. it's the circle of life. unfortunately for us, we have houses that get in the way and sometimes people get hurt, which really sucks. plus, we have to deal with poor air quality and it inconveniences us (which we really don't like). it takes time to deal with this stuff and we (humans, that is), by and large, are very impatient. bummer that pretty places, like big sur, are going to have burn marks from the fire and be less attractive, but i think i'll be ok knowing that that's the way things are supposed to go. OR... maybe they're not supposed to go like this- maybe this is part of the global warming phenomenon and this is mother nature fighting back at us, speeding up the process to make the human species extinct. The Earth will survive, i'm not worried about it. we may make it uninhabitable for humans, but the Earth will be fine. When we talk about destroying the Earth, we are only referring to destroying it for us. which, i think, is probably what we as a species deserve. OK, i'll try not to be cynical for a moment and foster the possibility of man learning from his mistakes and making a change and realizing that we are screwing up the Earth for ourselves. it's just that typically, we AMERICANS especially, don't fix things until they are completely broken, and usually by then it's too late. but...i'm trying not to be cynical. i'm still clinging to the hope that we will have a visionary new president to erase my cynicism entirely.