A Tangible Mystery

  The most tangible of all visible mysteries - fire.

(Leigh Hunt)

"When we build a fire it will be to cook our food. At night, we will take turns watching for the wildlife," Mandla has a way with instruction that sucks you in, "but do not let the fire get too big. This fire is to show the lion and hyena that this spot is taken for tonight."

That is not to say that during our 2 hour night watch shifts in the wilderness of South Africa, wildlife would not occasionally venture near our small fire. Mandla shared stories of folks drifting off during their shift only to be woken suddenly with a lioness across the campfire curiously checking them out. This method of keeping away potential predators was most likely birthed in this very landscape hundreds of thousands of years ago by our hominid relatives. I think of this transformative experience and Mandla's words nearly every time my eyes are entranced on a fire.


Fire. What is our human relationship with fire? I wondered this as I sat next to my own burning branches of aspen, delicately balanced over 2 inches of melted snow, sipping Montana Moonshine and Pineapple Coconut Juice. Heavy smoke occasionally wafted over as I gasped for a fresh breath.

I thought of campfires as the place where stories and ideas were shared with a community, long before humans had the ability post flippant thoughts over a social media post. When people spoke with intention. I heard the hiss as a few charcoals succumbed to the pool beneath the flames.

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.

(Henry David Thoreau)

Fire. The defining factor that allowed hominids to thrive in otherwise unbearable conditions, is now my Saturday night past time. I wish I had some marshmallows. I gave some of my larger pieces of aspen a quarter turn and fueled them with a long, deep exhale.

Evidence of the use of fire, estimated about 1 million years ago (give or take a few thousand years), was discovered in a cave not too distant from where Mandla shared Zulu history, told riddles, and helped us to grasp conservation issues in what seemed to be an African oasis. Anthropologist Dr. Richard Wrangham wrote an entire book, Catching Fire, which speculates the use of fire to cook raw meat led to the evolution of, well, us. We can thank fires for molding our brains.

Fire. The rampant force that destroyed so much of Montana, Washington and Idaho in 1910 that the Forest Service's culture today is reminiscent of that historical event. Another charcoal hissed.

The Big Blowup involved a massive, deadly fire that swept through the northwest. For the next several decades, the federal agency pushed to eliminate fire from landscapes as much as possible. Dousing fires as quickly as they could. Man's desire to control something rooted in our fear of it. Seems a familiar concept.

Fire and its ability to thwart, rejuvenate, illuminate, destroy, and seduce. Throughout history it has been worshipped, abhorred, depended on, manipulated, and weaponized. But when we have mastered the ability to control it...

Fire is the most tolerable third party

(Henry David Thoreau)

ONLY YOU. Smokey Bear's anthem resounded in my head as I tossed snow onto the embers. Next time I will get marshmallows.