[Rod_Cloutier]

I recently bought an outdoor fireplace. I was sitting for hours last night watching the fire burn and the wood crackle. I could hear laughs from two houses over where the neighbors we're doing the same thing; having a social get-together fireside.

I was thinking, sitting there with my wife and kids, that after 40 + years of my life I really don't understand what fire is? I know how to start a fire, how to put one out. I know about fire safety, how to use a fire extinguisher and even that there are whole professions devoted to fire safety and prevention. I know that fire is the wood carbon oxidizing into carbon dioxide, and the emissions from burning the wood will add to catastrophic climate change.

Still I was memorized by the flames. I know that the flames are releasing heat and light, but the patterns and how they suddenly leap up, twist, and change colours was hypnotic.

Perhaps part of the fascination is that I've lived most of my life detached from nature. Going from house to car, to work, to car, to house again and then repeat again. Food comes in cardboard packages, milk comes from plastic jugs, and heat comes from natural gas flames hidden in the furnace in the basement. The 'magic and awe' of nature is missing.

Fire as a metaphor for our lives, at is even expressed in our music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... MXFPAI#t=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMCl9eOB ... ilpage#t=1

Fire is a mystical, ominous, enchanting, terrifying, yet ever-present part of our lives. We love the energetic properties of fire, but are terrified of climate change from the emissions. A romantic night for lovers by the fireside is the part of any romantic getaway, but the tragedy of children lost due to playing with matches could be felt for a lifetime. Santa comes down the chimney from folklore, yet we lose everything if a fire takes our homes.

Fire we need it and curse it. It is as life and death. So when I revisit my question of what is fire, as the wood slowly burns down to embers, my question remains unanswered. We cannot every fully understand the nature of fire, our relationship to it, and why it holds such power over us?

[Pops]

there is a primitive comfort fire brings, ancient memories we can't quite remember... just outside the firelight

[potterpaul]

Fire is the ultra living element. It shines in paradise, it burns in hell.

As my user name implies, I am a potter, and I fire my pots with wood. I'm a new member, and just registered.

potterpaul

[sparky]

.
...............An Fire created Man

[Shaved Monkey]

I think we will probably see and hear a lot more "Burn Baby Burn" in our life times,when people get frustrated, that they are told to work hard, to make money so they can go shopping and there's no work, no money and they still want to shop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AF1FjZ-L-g

[sparky]

.
@ Shaved , controlling the yokel is the bedrock of organized society
religion , games and a judicious amount of slaughter work just fine
one has to keep about 30 % of the people on your side ,
and have a near monopoly on organized violence

[Ibon]

there is a primitive comfort fire brings, ancient memories we can't quite remember... just outside the firelight

Nicest thing I have read today....very beautiful.

[Hawkcreek]

One of the things I like about winter is that I get to make a fire in my barn/shop every day. Sometimes I just sit with the stove door open, watching the fire and drinking Southern Comfort. Great way to pass a few hours.

[SeaGypsy]

(Not all the memories are gone for everyone)

I was always fascinated with fire. I only once ever burned myself badly once, I was 4 years old messing around at a family barbecue. In Alice Springs as a kid the aboriginals would still show off by making fire with their hands and sticks. When I was a teenager someone lit a fire near my pot plants which burned a few hundred acres of bush, caused an evacuation and had me sitting with the local detectives for a few hours. When I was in my late 20's I learned true mastery of fire from my father, the ancient art of turning sand and metal into glass. The day my father died, my house burned down because of a mistake by a girl with a candle and a curtain. I twice lost everything I owned while living in tents and teepees (12 years+), making 3 times in total. I also do karate full heavy double staff, which is a lot of fun with burning sticks or kerosene wicks!

[Shaved Monkey]

Combining fire, art and recycling for a beautiful and practical post peak oil lifestyle.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Rocket-Grill/

[Heineken]

When I was 8 years old, I set the woods on fire behind our apartment block in Vienna, Austria. Boy did I get in trouble!

When I was 13, I built a lean-to in a scrubby patch of woods in a suburban wasteland in Maryland. I decided to spend a night in the lean-to. I made a little, properly banked campfire. Maybe the Marylanders had heard about what I did in Vienna, because I heard first one siren and then many sirens, and a short while later a battalion of fire trucks converged on the scene. More trouble.

When I was 35, I was burning a brush pile one evening here on our farm in Virginia. The thing was still smoking in the morning, in violation of the county's burn law (no open fires between certain hours during the fire season). I saw a small plane circling overhead. I had been spotted! Three or four hours later an official vehicle came bumping up our road. The official said he had spent all that time trying to find our place! I ended up in court over that one and had to pay a fine.

My worst run-in with fire was two springs ago, when a brush fire that consumed thousands of acres singed several of mine. At least I had not lit that fire. A bulldozer smashed a fire break right through a corner of our land! The flames stopped there, as it happened. I had spent many panicky hours loading up the pickup truck with our most precious or important possessions as a wall of smoke and flame thousands of feet across advanced on us. Took me bits and pieces of a year to clean up the damage the bulldozer left.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Last night I had a fire in my outdoor wood burning stove.

As normal it took a lighter, paper and kindling to get going, but once it took; the logs burned pleasantly.

I was having a great time, roasting marshmellows with the kids, chatting with my wife. Only one problem- we only had one bag of wood.

Once all the logs were on the fire they started to burn down; first the kids lost interest and went inside, then as it burned down further my wife decided to call it a night and went in as well. I was perplexed; how could I get it going again?

I still had alot of kindling and some old paper and cardboard; so I threw the paper and cardboard on. The fire burned nicely again for a few minutes and then went back to what it was before. I then threw all of the remaining kindling in the fire, and the fire again lept up and created a pleasant sight for an even briefer period of time.

It occurred to me at this point; that this was an exact metaphor for peak oil. When I added the paper and cardboard, this was equivallent to us using tarsands and oilshale; it burned, but only with more smoke, and it was short lasting. In the end it didn't matter how many 'little' pieces of kindling I threw in, the fire steadly burned down in concert with the large logs; an exact metaphor for what will happen with small oil fields, they will extend the illusion, but, ultimatly the large remaining oil fields will determine how much time is ultimately left.

Evenutally the fire went out; with all of the large logs gone there were only glowing embers. Somehow yesterday I think I finally 'got it' about our energy destiny. As a society we've thrown in all of the paper and cardboard, and only the kindling remains to be thrown on- in oil terms this will be coal liquifaction, methane hydrates, and manually shoveling crushed kerogen into indoor furnaces in the winter to stay warm.

Eventally the 'fire' will go out.

[SeaGypsy]

Quite an insight- even more of a worry is if somewhere on the downslope all the trees get burned. I read somewhere that in volume terms humans still burn about 2.5 times as much wood as fossil fuels.