Day one of vacation. Midsummer is always hot. Hot days are typical, and we have sun screen lotion so that we can safely spend time on the sand by the water.

However what is atypical is the brown-yellow haze that mimics a cloudy overcast day. A map of the extent of forest wild fires shows fires burning from New York to Detroit, to Minneapolis. Rising temperatures cause desiccated debris on the forest floor to become ready tinder for lightning strikes, or a careless camper leaving a campfire partially extinguished.

The upshot: air quality is poor, and if you have respiratory concerns you’d best remain inside today. I do not know if we will make our way down to the beach. Wait and see. Maybe in the afternoon.

My feelings are mixed. On the one hand I feel fury towards the coalition of Americans who align themselves to support Donald J. Trump as “the Lord and Savior” to substantiate their fantasy of “greatness”. I simply do not care whether they have been duped to this bizarre conviction. They are the base, the unconditional support of a man who has  repudiated the consequences of his behavior for the entirety of his professional life. He is a killer. And they are the “brown shirts”.

The forests burn and we breathe a smoke laced atmosphere on account of a warming climate denying administration and of everyone who supports it. I own my rage.

I also am comforted to recognize that what we mean by nature dwarfs every institution, and every empire no matter how long lived. Nature is a magnificent life-form, a rolling-recycling mechanism. Everything is destined to become disassembled and reconstituted into something else. Debris transmuted to meaning-making life, into something beautiful…

The image is of an abandoned lake house which is being reclaimed by the ebb and flow of decay. Our walk to the lake takes us past this house, once a habitat of someone. Shadowing the decaying house are what remains of a tall tree. Standing but dead.

Vegetation is reclaiming the property, reconstituting the lumber, the drywall, the flooring, and in due time – only forest will once again thrive on this piece of ground. I feel gratitude that the hubris, American over-reach of empire will be erased by nature, and in the passage of time, all will be well.

The additional image is of a red fungi mushroom situated with a broken branch, a skeletal oak leaf – a pause in the flow of time, this is nature at work…

And so it goes.