After the Lahaina Fire

The newspaper article in this link reports what Karen and I were up to yesterday afternoon. 

Karen's old boss, county Supervisor James Gore, called Tuesday and said he wanted to bring a busload of folks from the international "After the Fire" conference to our neighborhood, and asked if Karen could say a few words and I could provide a couple of signed copies of A Fire Story. One particular point of the visit was to show a contingent from Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, which was wiped out by fire a year ago, what a neighborhood looks like seven years after it burned to the ground. 

Karen spoke, then I spoke, and Gore spoke. We told them our story, and assured them that if they face every day with purpose and work together as a community, they'll get through it. I gave my book to the mayor and a city councilwoman from Lahaina. The mayor, in turn, gave Karen and me little pins from their city. We told them they're not alone. 

We hugged, we cried.

I found myself unexpectedly moved--"unexpectedly" because I've told my story in a lot of places to a lot of people, many of whom had lived their own version of it. I thought I'd gotten used to it. I think this was different because it was on my turf, in a little neighborhood park that was the only plot of grass and oaks that survived the fire, and the Maui folks' trauma is still so fresh and raw. 

I'm not fond of my quote in the linked article. "Punch them in the face" was said as a joke and doesn't necessarily come across like one in print. But I think we were able to provide some real-life insight and advice that we can only hope they find helpful.

It was a good and sad event.