Is yelling fire on the internet the same as it is in a crowded theater? Because this is an excited cry of ‘fire’, not a panicked one. I’ve been making lots of fires in the fireplace this winter, even when daytime temps are in the 60s. Why? Because I am a caveman and…[sinister music]…so are you. In terms of our history as humans, we are relatively new to things like pants and electricity and manners. Mostly we’ve been huddled around fires chewing on charred meat. Just think about the tens and hundreds of thousands of years we’ve spent as a species just staring into the flames, bellies full and backs safe. Here, ponder your origins as you stare into the fire.
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Fires symbolize safety and home. When you’re back at your own fire after time out in the wild you can be assured of warmth, comfort, safety, food, drink, and the company of others in your tribe. For most of our existence and recognizable humans we’ve been eating living, loving, and sleeping near a fire. More on that last bit shortly.
I’ve recently been dealing with a sore back and have realized the cause is our new mattress. So in the hopes of finding a single night’s sleep I moved out to the couch in the living room. And because I’m not a member of the Lollipop Guild I had to move the cushions on the floor to have room for my head and feet. As I drifted off to sleep that first night, there was a fire in our fireplace flickering down to coals. I had the best night of sleep in over a year. Now it’s been over a week and I sleep every night by the fire, on the floor. My back is better, my mood is better, my sinuses are better. I attribute some to the firm surface but more to the pleasure of sleeping in a warm common room by a fire. Only in the last few hundred years have we given up communal sleeping rooms around a hearth and it’s to our detriment we’ve done so. As a caveman, I find nothing better than sleeping by the fire and, if you have the option, try it out for yourself.
Writer, architect, father, husband.