Caveman Television

In the past week we've fired up our chimenea several times. It's nothing more than a crude cast iron outdoor fireplace or stove of sorts. We put it about six feet away from the two adirondack chairs in the back yard. It stands like a lone sentinel in the middle of our garden bed layout. We've lit the fire just before sunset and let it burn past dusk into the night. We end up by the fire for an hour or two. Watching the flames dance on the burning wood is entrancing. It is also very peaceful and relaxing. In those moments I think about how long humans have been watching fire and for how long it has served us so well. Cultures even have myths about how we first acquired our oldest and most powerful servant, the myth of Prometheus and Zeus comes to mind. When I think about that long legacy of fire use by humans. I feel like I wake a slumbering ancient memory not quite my own whenever I sit by a warm dancing fire. That connected feeling lets me feel a little like what our most ancient of ancestors felt like when they sat around a warm fire in the cold dark of the night. Deep down inside, we moderns are not that much different from the prehistoric people. We are different to be sure, and conspicuously so in some very strinking ways, but at our core we much more similar to our ancient ancestors. The dancing flame delights the eye and entrances the mind, and put the soul at ease while it banishes cold, darkness, and fear. That is true for us as much as it was for our earliest fire using ancestors.