California is Burning

I took this photograph back in 1988 in Los Angeles. My daughter (on the right) and her friend were about seven years old—playing dress up—and I asked them to pretend they were in Oklahoma during the 1939 Dust Bowl, and they were escaping their land-ravaged farm and heading west to California in an old jalopy.

The dream of California—land of eternal sunshine, palm trees and avocados. Kumquats and kiwis, oranges just out the kitchen door, ripe for the picking.

Oh, and movie stars.

I grew up on this dream. My grandfather spoon-fed me stories of how he hopped freight cars, traveling from the East Coast through the Great Plains to Los Angeles where he got work as a cowboy-extra in the famous silent film, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Perhaps this is why I thought I'd have luck in the movie biz.

Like my grandfather before me, my daughter and I left the East and headed to California. The rents were cheap. Every apartment included a swimming pool and U.C.L.A. was practically giving away scholarships to their famous film school. In 1986, we landed in the San Fernando Valley. And this is where the trouble began. Earthquakes, riots, mudslides, floods, fires. So many fires.

After eight years I retreated back to the East where I had family and roots and things were not quite so wild. Good schools and all that. A dying mother.

The usual reasons.

I never looked back until this week. With the visions of fire and the thoughts of all the friends I left behind, U.C.L.A. under threat—I am reminded of my time in the City of Angels. But also I am reminded of the fortitude and the unending courage of the good people of the tumultuous place.

My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered and lost so much.

My gratitude goes out to the brave firefighters.

Creative Friends--know this, those Angelinos--they’re a tough bunch. They will survive this latest catastrophe. This week, in their honor, do something courageous. Make something as crazy-sounding as a moving picture in the hills of a land called Hollywood. And please pray for better days ahead.

Love,

Jamie