Build a Fire

For a while I was content just sketching out any sort of interesting idea that would pop into my head, that I could retain enough interest for to work through it in this space. That was fine and well. But things are changing, and I'm changing. 

I'm less interested now in haphazard sketching - though there is a time and place to work out an obsessive random thought which may prove useful later, taking into account concepts of nonlinear problem solving and such - and more interested in putting everything together in a way that enriches better navigation and living. 

Part of the reason for this is situational and environmental, I've fallen through the cracks and am now engaged in a weird multi-faceted hustle to make a living. And the social and political landscape, along with standards of living, are rapidly deteriorating in the US, not to mention the industrial world. It is a time to focus. 

I could admit to overusing the fire metaphor at this point, but accordingly we have a well developed image on our hands that could prove useful for illustrating a greater point about this project. When you're awash in materials and conveniences, starting a fire to get warm is easy. There isn't a whole lot of consciousness involved, or better put, much of that consciousness is dispersed out to other people putting the appropriate materials in place, based on histories of knowledge and experience. 

The wood say is ready-made perfectly cured and you might even get a little densely packed kindling to get things going with, or perhaps some accelerant or some dry papers, and you flick your lighter and away you go. You can get a fire going without knowing too much or making too much of a fuss. 

But then say you are caught out in the cold ill-prepared and have less to work with and you have to light a mixture of dry and wet material, and it gets tougher really quick. You have to know how to progressively cultivate the fire and feed it and nurture it, and you have to understand how the air is traveling and what the heat is doing and where it is going, and how to keep the heat in with the surrounding earth and rock and housing as it is getting colder and more urgent. What if you can't get it lit and the cold presses in and you start to panic? 

The question is not just what to think, but what are we doing with it? How are we living better as things get worse? 

A good cultivated fire does little to overturn that old principle that "no one gets out alive," but it does make things a little warmer and easier.