As devastating fires ravage communities, the impact extends beyond physical destruction to the loss of social infrastructure. Individuals have lost their homes and the everyday routines they symbolize. The urgency of evacuation highlights the tangible items valued in memory, while communal ties to history, represented by local businesses and places of worship, are destroyed. Rebuilding efforts should focus on both hard infrastructure and the softer connections that hold communities together, acknowledging that the essence of community goes beyond bricks and mortar.
The fires have taken homes, and they have taken what binds us together outside our homes. Context died in the flames, our communal ties to a shared past.
We must do more than simply replicate what was there. Rebuilding our soft infrastructure, the network of social ties holding communities of people together, must be just as high a priority as wires, wood and steel.
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