COGNITIVE HEARTH
On 11 July 2001 I was rolling up the street in Omak, Washington
when I viewed the smoke plume in the image above. I commented
to myself.....that is one bad fire. It seemed all the way
home that day I could not get that cloud out of my mind, let alone,
get out from underneath its shadow. Where we were living at the
time, I could look out the window to the west and there, looming
over the metamorphic hills of the Okanogan was the cloud. Metamorphic,
to change in form by pressure and heat. The next day in the newspaper
the word came on how the pressure and heat of an otherwise meaningless
fire, morphed the lives of four families, of very young firefighters,
into the world of despair. It impacted me profoundly. The Thirtymile
Fire was a no-account wildfire in a remote corner of the Northwest
that in all intents and purposes should have burnt itself
out. It was human interaction with this situation, with an pyro-environment
that allowed this firestorm to deal the cards and stack the deck.
If you would like to learn more about the fire, please listen
to the interviews with Kathie FitzPatrick, who lost her 18 year
old daughter Karen in the fire and John Norman Maclean who has
written the seminal work on this event, The Thirtymile Fire: A
Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal. You
can find these at the EOU Acoustic Space web site.
CONDITIONS
Almost like, Tomorrow
When You Cry, this song came from an ethereal level. It came
out quick. and for me it was therapeutic. I was very honored to
have been able to contribute it in a performance at the Memorial
Service for these four very young heroes. I will not forget that
warm July day at the SunDome in Yakima. I'm pleased to know that
the song is now used in firefighting circles.
