Last week I had breakfast with a friend who was talking about how between the recent Griffith Park fire and escalating racial tension in parts of town, Los Angeles might not be the long term safe haven he'd previously thought it was. Since then I've heard two other people reference the fires as a reason they are considering moving out of town. These comments jumped out at me, not because I agreed, but because I felt completely the opposite. I've always been attracted to the chaos. Whether it was playing with too much gun power as a kid, or living through the Chicago Bulls riots, or getting vegan dogs at Pinks , I've always some kind of attraction to the dangerous.

It struck me this weekend watching SRL perform at Makers Faire. Or more specifically when fire was rushing towards the crowd. There was two kinds of people in the audience there - those who ran from the fire, and those who ran to it. I've seen similar reactions to SRL over the years with folks who have gone with me to see them - they leave either saying how that is something they will never do again, or bubbling with excitement and dreaming of the next chance they will have to see them. There's clearly some kind danger gene that attracts or repels people. Watching SRL this weekend I realized how important the chaos is to me, and more importantly how little a part of my life it's been recently. There have been time periods in my life when these things were a weekly staple - now they are few and far between and I realized how much I need it. How much I need to be around it.

It was also reassuring to be surrounded by people who seemed to have the same reaction I did, which hasn't always been the case. I don't know where I'm really going with this post. Just something I've been thinking about for the last week. Maybe I just need to light more fires. And maybe that's only a partial metaphor.