Up from Ashes

Last winter, the BRC founder and his wife were gripped along with the nation by TV coverage of the Thomas Fire that incinerated 440 square miles of central California. This month, we again traveled to the Golden State to attend the annual Ojai Music Festival in this small and friendly township that miraculously escaped the runaway conflagration. A photo from the local tourist guide depicts a malignant firestorm cloud teetering over the mid town music park, but the flames capriciously went elsewhere.

Although green springtime undergrowth has since re-carpeted the landscape, the charred skeletons of trees reaching eerily for the sky like boney fingers abound in the surrounding countryside and map the fiery path of the destructive inferno. The community has rebounded from this cataclysm with “Ojai Strong” determination to help all of its citizens impacted by the blaze. During the music festival, we visited the community museum that features a show by local artists whose  “Scorched Souls”  exhibit captures the emotionally exhausting features of the California fire with its loss of homes, life, and dreams.

Like last year, the BRC founder again attended a Bluegrass jam session in the neighboring village of Oak View which was also incredibly bypassed by the omnivorous wildfire. In the background of a group photo of the musicians, who experienced the fiery peril first-hand,  leafy trees bear witness that Oak View was spared from the Thomas flames and its rogue embers which devoured nearby areas.

At the end of the Ojai music fest, the BRC founder and his spouse attended a unique performance by a string quartet in a small theater where the house lighting was extinguished into absolute darkness for the event. Never has the wooden resonance of stringed instruments been heard with such crystal clarity than in this envelope of complete blackness. Brighter days lie ahead for the good folks of Ojai and Oak View.