The Importance of Breathing

This blog isn’t an espousal of yoga; and it isn’t just repeating the obvious, that, as humans we need oxygen. It’s not even primarily a statement of environmentalism. It’s more a personal observation from the last few days here in Northern California.

My wife and I definitely realize that we are fortunate, something we often note when we learn of tragedies elsewhere. The fires are not here in Richmond, and they are far enough away that we have little risk of our condo complex burning down, at least not this time. We see so much desolation on the news reports – so many missing, dead, newly homeless. As with so many earlier disasters, we feel sympathy, we do what we can to help (usually with donations), and then we go about our day.

But something was different this time. The air is barely breathable, right where we are. It’s true that we don’t drop dead from taking it in, but it is polluted enough that extended exposure would be dangerous. We uncharacteristically have all of our windows closed, and we sharply limit our outside time.

As Joni Mitchell sang, in “Big Yellow Taxi,”:

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone

We can’t see the air, and we really don’t think about it. Before this week, when we went out from our condo, we would breathe, just like we do inside our condo. Breathe in, breathe out. We’d do it consciously, as in a yoga exercise, or unconsciously, as in, almost always. It’s just part of being alive, just like beating your heart …

But suddenly, it hits you: oh, yeah, air! Maybe we can’t take it for granted! Here we are on the only habitable planet we’ve got (we won’t be moving to Mars any time soon), and the air and the water (I’m thinking of you, Flint) are our most basic essentials. How bizarre it is, not to be able to count on one of these!

My dear friend Julene Bair writes (and podcasts) about the disappearing aquifer in the Great Plains (https://www.julenebair.com/blog) … and I just noticed that we need air to breathe. I can sometimes be a little bit slow to notice things …

People out near Paradise, California are the ones who are really getting clobbered right now. If you can, go to one of the many charities helping people displaced by the Camp fire and help however you can. One of these is the North Valley Community Foundation, at https://www.nvcf.org/.