Çanakkale is burning
A forest fire has been burning in Northwest Turkey very close to the city center. Nine villages have been evacuated; animals brought to safety.
We don’t have wildfires back in PH so I’m just starting to understand them–how they start, why they can’t be stopped, what happens to the land afterwards. In this case, they say a farmer may have started it by burning stubble or the straw that’s leftover after harvesting grains. Firefighters on the ground, 22 helicopters and 7 fighter jets deployed from above.
Here’s the Trojan horse, an unmistakable icon of the region. We stopped by Çanakkale on the drive back from İstanbul in June, and I distinctly remember loving all the yellows everywhere. Now I’m not sure what we’ll see on our next drive there.
On Yellow Day we’re reminded that we exist in a context, with conditions beyond our control. A wildfire can spread at the drop of a hat. When we create, we also unleash something into the world–whether it inspires or ravages is sometimes not up to us.