Can you elaborate on this bubble effect? How helpful or unhelpful are such bubbles and what do we learn when they get busted?
Fies: The bubble effect is an interesting thing I've noticed at other times. I went through the big Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and found that friends living on the other side of the country knew a lot more about what was going on than I did. Same with the fire. You focus on your immediate needs without any larger context. You're too busy to think about it.
Then, in a few hours or days or weeks, when your immediate needs are met and you don't have to spend every minute solving critical problems, you can lift your gaze and realize, "Oh, it's not just me."
I don't know if it's helpful or unhelpful so much as simply necessary. The bubble probably provides some insulationif you had to grasp the full enormity of a disaster it could be overwhelming and paralyzing, but if your focus is "Today I need to buy shoes," that's a problem you can tackle and solve.
I also don't know if the bubble bursts so much as it gradually expands. At first, it only includes you and your family. Then "bloop," it includes your neighbors and friends, then your city, then maybe your region or state. Once you don't have to worry about yourself you can worry about others. Like they say in the airplane safety lecture, you have to secure your own oxygen mask before you can help others secure theirs.
Hawkins: I liked your Black Hole metaphor regarding what happens to people after a catastrophic fire. Care to explain?
Fies: I've always loved space, I majored in physics and taught astronomy labs in college, so the "black hole" metaphor came easily to me. The idea is that the firestorm was our community's black hole. As with a real black hole, some bodies orbit around this powerful gravitational force, other bodies are pulled in and destroyed, and still others are flung far away beyond the black hole's pull.
In our disaster, my wife and I were bodies that orbited, uneasily circling this terrifying thing that nearly destroyed us. Other people were destroyed, including those who died that night or later. Some committed suicide. I knew elderly people whose lives I'm certain were shortened by the fire; they just lost heart. Others left the area for other cities, states or countries where they thought they could find safety and peace, never to be heard from again.
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