Multnomah Falls Engulfed in Flames by Out-of-Control Wildfire

[defacto7]

39. Been there done that...

Must be about the same age.

You are right, the cosmos don't care.The cosmos is stupid too... but I do care. One stupid dope me... I care and that's all that matters.. to me. I'm atheist so god is a myth, a mind disease humans have nursed for millenia. It's the source of human stupid.

The difference between us is you present a pretty picture with a beautiful sentiment that rouses feelings of nostalgia. I can only offer hard facts and my own history. The future I offer is bleak and it's based on my knowledge of that area which is rather vast.
It was my life since birth and the Columbia Gorge and the Cascades were my mother... really. I know where it's been and I know where it's going. And things will never ever be the same. It will not come back as you say and i have no soul to hand down to my kids anymore because it burned today. It burned with the 2 previously unknown species of tree, and only I knew where it grew. It's documented and registered and i protected them. They're gone.
The climate has changed and will continue to do so. Our pristine taiga climate is no more and the forests will now be consumed by oak scrub.
Yes, someone will hike through in 300 years and say, my what pretty oaks and sandy hills. This dry arid place is a bit severe but they are spooky pinticles, rough and bleak.
And there will be no understanding, no memory, no awe in the deep wet 200 foot Doug Firs and Western Reds. Maybe in museum pictures.

We're quite far apart in viewpoint but we do have the last memories of the way it was. Charish it for the time we have.