MLK & the Fire Next Time
Almost two weeks have passed since 100 mph winds whipped flying embers across the swath of mountains from the San Gabriels to the Santa Monicas, destroying much in their path. It is too soon to know the full extent of the fallout from these events – both physical and emotional. For artists, whose existence is generally more precarious than most in the best of times, this annihilation is apocalyptic. As the days march on and the initial shock of it passes we are left with this overwhelming sense of psychological malaise. The idea that our home – the city where we hold our sense of self, our hearts and minds – can be wiped away in an instant.
While this sense is raw at the moment we must remind ourselves that many cities were reborn in the wake of fiery destruction – ancient Rome after the vanity of Emperor Nero, Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the nuclear blasts of WWII. Each reborn city returned with a new understanding of itself informed by the lessons learned from its recent destruction. One is reminded of the ancient Egyptian myth of the Bennu bird, popularized by Herodotus, the Greek historian, as the Phoenix. Alternately linked to Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and rebirth or the origin story of the Flame of Creation, the Bennu-phoenix is reborn from the ashes of its own death by fire.
Today is the national holiday for MLK, Jr. In one telling, the Bennu bird, destroyed for the vanity of hoarding spices atop the temple of the sun god, returns from the dead and realizes it might be smart this time to offer a tribute to the temple god. An important lesson from its earlier destruction that underscores the significance of strategy. Many younger readers may not realize that the Civil Rights Movement was already well underway by the mid-1950s, but failed to capture national attention until Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as one leader during the Montgomery Bus Boycotts with his fiery speeches on nonviolence. You may not have been alive to remember it took activists 15 years after his death to create the national holiday.
Today is also inauguration day for the 47th president. While coincidental, one has to wonder about the significance of this inauguration falling on the same day as the MLK celebration. Although arbitrary, one wonders if it is meant to overshadow or ignore altogether the life and work of the slain leader?
On this MLK Day the losses from the recent fires feel incalculable. Especially for artists and black and brown folk. As those already facing real estate predators attempting to cash in on their losses know, with fewer economic resources to spring back we artists often fall victim to the pressing needs of survival. We are less likely to take the time to strategize. But we need to remind ourselves of the Egyptian Bennu bird and the importance of creating strategy. It may take more time, but certainly, as the months go by and we work through the experience of the natural stages of grief, let us resist predation and the downside of loss by forming a vision, a strategy that allows us to restore anew a sense of our city as a home and place where the heart truly lies.