This week, the City of Los Angeles is on my mind. Friends and friends of friends have lost their homes to the wildfires and are now living with the challenge of finding food, clothing and a place to rest their head at night.
I left the City of Angels back in 1994 just after the Northridge Earthquake. My daughter and I had been awakened in middle of the night by a sudden shaking and an ominous sounding rumble. This was followed by the screeching of metal on metal, a symphony of car alarms, and the cries of my neighbors crying, wailing and praying.
I grabbed my daughter from her bed and we crawled through the wreckage--the toppled bookcases, the broken glass from the shattered aquarium--exotic fish struggling to catch a breath in a puddle of salty water. Milk streaming across the living room floor from the refrigerator that had somehow waddled out of the kitchen, lost its way in the confusion and tumbled, collapsing into a pile of frozen pizza boxes and ketchup, left-over Chinese Chicken Salad take-out and half a bottle of flat champagne.
My daughter and I managed to get to a door jamb, where we knelt among the broken glass, closed our eyes and prayed.
When I opened my eyes, I noticed Marilyn Monroe. She was dabbing her collar bone with Chanel No. 5. Okay, a poster of Marilyn Monroe--inside a frame, the glass around her, shattered. But still, it felt as if Marilyn wanted to send me a message. You'll live through this. Or perhaps it was just You should wear more perfume.
This earthquake—it was apocalyptic. But, it was also funny. As it turned out, Marilyn was right. We did live through it. Broken and bloodied. We lived to tell the tale.
Creative Friends—we all live in some kind of disaster zone. Catastrophe can strike at anywhere, at any time--whether we live in L.A. or Louisville, whether we live in a mansion or a hut. We are all human, fragile and vulnerable to the vagaries of life.
Knowing this, the most important thing we can do is to help one another.
Your assignment for this week is to reach out to friends and offer a few kind words. But, mostly--listen. That just might be the kindest thing you can do.
Love,
Jamie
