Yesterday was the Super Bowl and if
you’re like me you went to see family and/or friends and enjoy the hoopla of
the game with a sprinkling of funny commercials. I spent the time with my
lovely Mother and my nearly 90-year-old Grandfather. Everyone else was out of
town so the three of us got some pizza and turned on the game. Before any of
this happened a debate occurred about the merit of going downstairs to watch TV,
as basement was cold and none of us knew how to start a fire. I’m happy to
report that I rose to the challenge. I announced with some pride that I would
light the fire to warm the family. I, like many people I know, are drawn to the
smell of wood burning. If someone lights a fire we start to gather, add food to
the heat, and warm ourselves. I have many times taken advantage of fires
provides by others but I myself had never lit one. As I knew nothing about
lighting a fire, other then add wood and light match, I started by gathering
what I assumed were the required tools. Logs, kindling, newspaper, and a box of
matches.
I often light candles so I know the basic principle of fire,
that it needs oxygen to burn. I started with that. I checked the flue to see if
it was open and allowing oxygen in. Then I laid tightly wound bits of newspaper
on the inside of the fireplace, which I then topped with kindling. I stacked
two logs on top in a way that would allow them to “breathe” where still fueling
one another then I lit the match. I moved the matched to the paper on both
sides and in the middle so that the bottom was burning in hopes that the fire
would catch and burn the logs. Nothing was catching so I added more paper,
kindling, and even some cardboard then set near the fire to watch it. Slowly
but surely, with a creeping sort of patience, the fire climbed up the wood. I
stayed sitting near it till I heard it pop and crackle. As the night moved on I
continued to tend it. I added more wood, poked it, and fed it more paper. It
was quite a learning process as creating and tending a fire symbolize the importance
of patience, as the progression cannot be rushed.
Making a fire seems basic, like
something you should just be able to do if you have the need but little did I
know how demanding it is. Pardon the verbosity of these next few phrases but
the fire seemed a like a wild animal that needed care. It demanded food,
attention, and persistence while never losing the ability to cause harm. While
tending the fire I learned that there is some base pleasure in warming your
family and providing for their needs. Which could be why my Dad likes to
perform the task when he is home. He chops the wood, stacks it neatly, carries
it to the hearth when needed, and builds fires for us that sometime smolder
into the next day. I can stare into the fire he builds and lose track of time
as each fire is a unique thing that burns in it’s own way without apology or
direction.
Fire itself appeals to the base
needs of mankind as it gives us food, warmth, connection, and protection from
those who would do us harm. Those among the ancestral man who could provide
this founded tribal groups. Some people were required to watch the fire while
others hunted and gathered. They watched it and fed it to keep fire going but
to also stop it from spreading and burning everything down. Creating something
as powerful and delightful as fire from nothing is a strange experience. If you think about thing too much, as I
am prone to do, fire links us to our past and allows us to acknowledge a
current deep human connection. Women in impoverished nations wake before dawn
to gather wood and start a fire so they can provide for their family. The poor
in cities around the globe huddle
around fire as a basic source of warmth. Smalls fires and candles are lit
around the world as parts of different religious or cultural celebrations. You
and I use some form of fire when we turn on our stoves or heaters. Men and
women all over the world regardless of race, creed, or nationality have used
and still use fire. It’s been this way throughout the ages and by lighting one,
safely of course, you find yourself connecting with something deeply ancient
and surprisingly current.
No comments:
Post a Comment