Coffee and Chaos

Coffee shop snippets. Peppy upbeat music drowns out a lot of the words but there is an undercurrent in everyone’s conversations. Tone varies from somber to disbelief to oblivious. I have a bird’s eye view from the second level balcony as an assortment of people filter in and out.

A barista has been boiling water at home so she can brush her teeth.

An incredulous exclamation and the word “parade.” They canceled it, a mother corrects the man in front of her. Her young son doesn’t like the drink she got him.

A jovial group of teenagers wolfing down breakfast. One is awaiting her acceptance and rejection letters. Another mentions his mother’s frustrations with their insurance. $200 a night hotel room and eating out everyday and the insurance won’t pay. Some issue with whether it is related to the fire or not (when everyone not wrapped in a red-tape bureaucratic mind knows it is). Another mentions plans to park near the beach and sneak into the evacuation zone to take pictures because they’ll get caught if they drive.

The weather is beautiful, cool and sunny. A perfect California winter day. Life carries on as usual here. Not a few miles down the highway, chaos. Muck and despair and loss and destruction and hope and love and community.

The contrast is jarring and I have been struggling to reconcile it all week.