Lessons, Painful At Times, Are Only Lessons If They're Eventually Learned

<![CDATA[The devastation in Southern California is almost beyond measure. A little over half of Pacific Palisades is gone. Most of the seaside parts of Malibu are in ruins. There are now seven active fires in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties, none of them remotely contained at the writing of this column.The human toll, which will continue to grow in the days and weeks, is heartbreaking. The property loss and personal effects consumed in the fires are just the beginning for a new batch of Angelino refugees. In the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, there will be ongoing concerns about shelter, and whether they can and will try to rebuild their lives in what once was among the most premium places to live in the world. When the Santa Anas began blowing in earnest Tuesday morning and word broke out of a fire above the Palisades, I began to pray that the west side of Los Angeles would not end up with the same fate as Lahaina. By early evening, glued to local television reports from Malibu, a second fire in Pasadena and Altadena, and a third raging in Sylmar burning everything in its path, it began to sink in that by Wednesday morning, the landscape of the L.A. Basin would be changed for a very long time to come. By Wednesday night, a new fire in the middle of the Hollywood Hills began. Sunset Blvd., Coldwater Canyon, Runyon Canyon, and possibly Hollywood Blvd., and any number of famed structures and houses on those roads, are in the destruction path.]]>