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Burned
FIRE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF UNCERTAINTY, and playing with it is just what Mama said.
It is said that for every complex question there exists a simple, easily understood, and completely erroneous answer. In the year 2000, such answers sprouted like radishes from the ashes of the Cerro Grande fire, which had raged across the eastern face of the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, blackening 17,348 forested hectares. Along the way, it destroyed the homes of 400 families in the town of Los Alamos and penetrated the security of Los Alamos National Laboratories more effectively than any Cold War enemy.
One reason the fire inspired a Babel of argument, in addition to the obvious trauma of loss, was that it contradicted so much previous experience. In a way, we did not know how to think about it. I say "we" because, as a northern New Mexican, I was among the thousands of stunned witnesses to the fire’s harrowing passage. I remember how it seemed that not just a mountainside but also one of the central pictures of the world had caught fire, and its flames consumed not only the picture but the frame that contained it, so that when we sought the meaning of what had happened, we had to find a new place to put the answer.
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