Flood, flame and a plucky cat

...a dispatch from bewilderness

Flow — a dialogue-free film from Latvia — follows a plucky cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. The courageous cat and his crew sail a makeshift boat across a waterlogged planet in search of dry land. The crew consists of a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog. Fyi, a capybara — which is the world’s largest rodent — is about the size of a wolf and weighs about 100 pounds.

My daughter lives just east of Hollywood, which means just east, and west, and south and north of flames still burning in the now smoke-choked land of dreams. The “Big One” came, but it wasn’t an earthquake that triggered the inferno, it was towering black clouds shot through with streaks of orange and seething with flames.

Sometimes she had no power. Sometimes she had no cell service. As a result updates were spotty. Very spotty. Sometimes it wasn’t safe for her to stay in her home. Sometimes it wasn’t safe for her to leave. Sometimes I knew where how she was. Mostly I did not.

For those of us who don’t live in LA, the fire arrived in the form of photographs of flames or photographs of celebrities whose homes burned or may burn still. Plus footage of afflicted mountains, hollowed out hills, forests of flame.

Smoke suffocates. My daughter’s dog was struggling to breathe. Sometimes my daughter was struggling to breathe. On streetcorners, coyotes were struggling to breathe. At night, it likely looked like trillions of eyes lit up like cats in dark.

My daughter is a vocal coach. The schools and homes she taught in are gone. Her income — reduced to ash. The air smelled of fire and of every toxic compound from every structure reduced to grit.

For close to 10 days, my daughter and countless others have dodged or been followed by fires, then dodged or been followed again, ears deafened by sirens, throats raw from soot and smoke.

Flow, the film from Latvia, features untouched landscapes and serene wildlife. Untouched? Serene? Fyi, 2024 was the hottest year in recorded history. Nothing lasts forever. Not fire. Not water. Or life itself.

If you are a writer on Substack, please recommend my stack to your readers. Subscriptions are FREE and will remain FREE as long as Substack allows.