Fire

To observe the importance of fire is to state the obvious. For unknown millenia it has been crucial to humankind as a giver of heat and light, providing a means to cook and survive, and all the well-documented rest of it. But this blog is about beauty in the commonplace, and fire is magnificent. You can take an average room or place, an average situation, add a fire in a fireplace or bonfire pit and suddenly the atmosphere changes entirely. There is a new warmth that has nothing to do with temperature, a new focal point. If the room is dark enough, the fire outlines the people around with brushstrokes of gold and red and flickers interestingly on changing facial expressions. There is a sudden unity when there is a fire, whether due to the common activity of marshmallow roasting or simply to this central presence. Fire renders the chilly bearable, the ugly mysteriously beautiful, and the commonplace magical.