Primeval Fire

  

Saturday our church had our annual hayride/fish fry.  It was awesome as usual; fun times with friends, laughter, and great food.  This is a big fall tradition for our church.  And, as the evening progresses and darkness falls, the children especially look forward to the tradition of the bonfire, toasted marshmallows and hotdogs.  They anticipate this as much or more, I believe, than all the rest of the activities.

 There seems to be some primeval call to experience the four elements with wild abandon; does there not?  Look at the extreme sports; they most all deal with pitting oneself against nature, the force of gravity to the earth, to walk on hot coals, spit fire, to fly faster, dive deeper, or go spelunking into the most inaccessible cave possible.

 This struck me as I watched the kids; mostly boys, around the bonfire Saturday night.  And I have seen one of my own nephews exhibit this behaviour.  They wanted to keep throwing fuel on the fire; make it bigger, make more sparks kashoosh upwards, to get as close to it as possible and not get burned.   There was that urge to push it to the limit.  

We humans seem to do this to prove our superiority over nature.  Or maybe we just like to flirt with danger.  I don't know; I am no psychologist, but it was just interesting to watch the children interacting with the flames.




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