Driving home tonight at 6:20pm, I turned north on Foothills Parkway, and I saw a gaping red crescent, like an evil smile at the crest of a hilltop in the foothills above Boulder. It was now dark. All day long, in the sunshine, we had watched the northward progress of the smoke across the western horizon. But the flames were invisible to us—they were somewhere, over there.
Now it was right in front of me. The flame and the burning. It reminded me of the volcanic eruptions on the Big Island of Hawaii. I drove slowly northward towards Longmont and home. When I was almost to Airport Road, I noticed sudden a heavy, smoky smell. When I turned onto Airport Road, clouds of smoke hung above the farmer’s fields. The smoke must have been blown all the way north and east to Longmont from above Boulder. I felt as heavy as the air.
I remembered last summer, and the fires down south, just west of Colorado Springs. We drove down because Dave had a conference, and I could visit my cousin, Kathy. As we neared Castle Rock, the clouds became grayer and heavier. Soon, a smoky black veil hid the foothills from us. It rose up the sky to tamper with the sun, which became red and bloated. Eerie reddish shadows covered the road ahead. It was just like Mordor.
Now I knew what vision Tolkien had in mind for the evil force at work in Middle Earth. This was it. But not as clearly identified not as obvious as an eye seeking in the dark. Here was Nature and Man. Man and Nature. At crossroads, perhaps. At times working together, when Man decides that seeking an outlet for anger is more important than preserving what he swore to protect. But, are we shortsighted to see Man and Nature as separate? Are we all just a part of Nature? A part of Good and Evil?
How to conceive of something, like a wildfire, which seems both good and evil? It clears dead brush on one hand, and destroys people’s homes on another. Clearing the forest to start life anew here, but leveling Man’s structures and achievements over there. And what does Man do? He comes back to build again in the same place. It is Man’s nature to try to overcome all other Nature.
Is that Good or Evil? Or is this language to limiting to describe the phenomena. It is a tragedy. It is Evil in the eye of the Beholder. It is a Life Interruptor. A Life Taker. A Life Changer. But there are many forces that have these effects on us. From a distance, a wildfire looks like one of many tragedies, interspersed with the wonders of Nature and of Man.
At a distance it is just life. But close up, it is Mordor. And those who get closest to it, will not forget.
Posted by ellen at October 29, 2003 11:21 PM