The fury of nature is not only fire but wind. Fire has much more chance of “containment” if there is little wind. But wind, somewhat like water, goes its own way at its own speeds at its own time. Wind and fire combined is nature at its’ extreme. The type of nature that needs to consume and destroy rather than flood by waters or collapse by the wind of hurricanes and tornados or the shaking of earthquakes or the explosions of volcanoes or …

Yet, in the fury of nature, there are so many wonderful things happening in LA right now. Perhaps the greatest is something being called “LA Strong.” It relates to the resilience of Angelenos who realize they are living on the edge of all types of disasters and continue to live there. They have rebounded many times before. It is somewhat a subliminal state of mind for Angelenos.

LA Strong has been so incredible in showing the strength of community that has no division in it. This is what LA Strong is all about: those who have lived through the common experience of – as Coppola showed us so well about Vietnam – in his brilliant view of this apocalypse.

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The tragedy is horrendous. Yet, from this tragedy, a new sense of community might develop and become powerful and unit the rest of the nation in new ways.

Now, I feel sad about my hometown as I know so well what has been destroyed. The music of the Doors “This is the End” and the images of Apocalypse Now seem appropriate.

But this is only for now.

I know of something called the spirit of LA because it is something I have felt from growing up and living in LA over th years. It is even something beyond politics as much as people want to make it about politics. I’ve felt this spirit over the years. It is not something that can be described to someone else. It is simply something that must be lived.

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For now, for me, Coppola’s film catchers how I feel about the LA fires. Apocalyptic. It overrides everything else. And when something of this magnitude happens, it cuts life off. Everything is lost. As Morrison sings, “This is the end my friend.”

One wonders if Hollywood will ever capture the apocalyptic LA fires in various stories or film genres. Or, even wants to capture this in the first place. Much depends on screenwriters living in LA now during the fires. They all come to any new story – even the farthest thing from any drama about fire – with a common experience of living through an apocalyptic event.

Might this apocalyptic event have an effect on the stories that come from the world’s story capital Los Angeles? What will be the reaction of the world’s leading storytellers to the fires? It’s an interesting question to me because of my long-time interest in screenwriting.

* * *

All of this speculation is too early with the fires still raging and not contained. My sister’s home threatened if the winds pick up in a particular direction. But in speculating about the end that Morrison sings about, I can’t help from speculating about new and important and positive things that might come from the LA fires.

For one, the world’s story capital LA might change in the stories it presents to the world after the fires. Stories about apocalyptic endings. Yet the one thing one can say about apocalyptic endings is that they provide fertile ground for spectacular new beginnings.