marientina

Our local church news comes to our atheist house. The vicar - Brian Hall - reports seeing 80 fires from the beach at Skiathos and fine ash descending on the island where he was on holiday. I believe that if Greece can one day steward her environment against horrendous odds then so can the rest of us. And if you feel as you do then maybe the law that says there's no such thing as action at a distance can be broken. Here it has rained and rained and rained. I came to your URL via Nikos Dimou who commented on mine. I've now linked you to my pages. Hope that's OK. I'm very linear and hyperlinking, tho' I've known it a while, still feels like a new toy. Hope you are feeling better. I'm trying to write and blogging is a siren, displacement activity - the story of my 65 years. Simon (Birmingham UK)

Thanks for visiting Simon. I visit Nikos Dimou on a daily basis, but almost rarely comment. I am a pre-blog friend and fan...The comment slaughter on his blog makes me sad, but he thinks of it as a good social experiment.

Your blog echoes my sentiments in a less emotional way than I would phrase them. I seem to have stumbled upon lots of reading material. Thank you!

I have limited myself to reading the greek papers to once per week because they make me react so badly. I feel like my country will soon be off the map and somehow I will get blamed for it -- not being there to fight.

On the other hand, staying here in my birth country helps me preserve my sanity and thus perhaps my spirit, and maybe that will be enough. I still cannot reconcile the burning of Greece, the literal and the metaphorical.

I want to believe that they are all wildfires and that all the stories about intent are conspiracy. When discussing the horror of wildfires, my partner explains to me that destruction is just as natural as preservation. He is a non-greek and his "laissez-faire" attitude is what I love and hate about him.

I am saddened when California burns, but when Greece burns I feel like I am losing parts of my body. I often think of Frida Kahlo's last diary entry: "I hope the exit is joyful and I hope to never return." My exit was sorrowful (yet necessary) and I often hope to return. After all, nostos is a greek invention--not a mexican one...

175 fires and 27 people dead in the last 24 hours. Wildfires from heatwave and wind and various opportunistic arsonists.

How is this acceptable? And do you think we're safer in California? Think again...