After remodeling my wife’s childhood home in Orinda, moving there from a much-loved home in Walnut Creek, and working to make our house and property safer in a wildfire, I wondered, What are our responsibilities as homeowners, neighbors, and toward future generations? I think “owning” a house and property doesn’t make much sense in the long run because owning anything is always temporary. We move from one place to another and eventually must let go of everything when we grow old and pass away. Maybe, instead, we could think of it as stewards of the building and property for the time we live there?
Aside from protecting our lives and property as best we can while the effects of Global Climate Change become more evident each day, including the increased fire risks in California, why spend so much time and money on upkeep?
Here's a poem where I grapple with the problems. I hope it speaks to you.
Living With Fire
Pink and red Camellia blossoms are on fire
outside my office window, and olive green Oak trees.
I can hear the whine of leaf blowers across the street
the argument of Steller's Jays
wind chimes made of pine needles
and the noisless buzzing of the hummingbirds.
The coyotes howl at night
and the thought of a spark
from our neighbor’s Eucalyptus tree
haunts us, like scenes in L.A.
of rising fire, knife blades cutting through homes.
We live here on borrowed time.
My wife grew up here. We have loose dirt and mulch prepared for a garden.
A new foundation when we moved in.
Piers going down ten feet.
Gutter guards and metal mesh to keep out
the embers. Defensible space only gives us time to run.
We hope to save for the next generation
the Bougainvillea from the insurance company
because it's too close to the house.
It's been clinging to the back porch
for fifty years.
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