Fire Monster

What is it about fire that fascinates human beings? Is it the heat, the color, the power that emanates from it? The pulsating of the flames, the sound of the cracking destruction that it causes? I watched in awe as our solstice bonfire kept us, the entire lot of us, at bay around the flaming monster that was created when twigs and branches were thrown onto the almost living, breathing entity. A few of us were baiting it - loading it with fuel and then raking it down into a glowing circle only to reload it with crackling and sparking wood, watching it grow powerful and bright again.

As I stood just outside the glowing circle of light, I realized that there was a predictable cycle of flame and fire, sparks and embers. When the fuel was tossed on, the fire would first go down and then sparks would fly into the black of the night sky just before the roar of a renewed flame would fill the air and smoke would come next, sometimes a lazy white curtain, sometimes a black dense fog. Then it would settle into flames that were low and in same ways softly comforting only to eventually need to have more fuel loaded onto it to get the embers back to flame. And the cycle would start all over...Why are we so fascinated by fire? I think it is because in a lot of ways it is like our lives: Light the fire, feed the flames, tease back to life and rake out the coals. Predictable? Yes. Boring? Never.