Part of me can’t believe I’m writing about something so obvious. Another part sees it as sadly inevitable. I’m afraid I might end up writing about the importance of staying alive, or building an argument that unexpected things really do happen sometimes in life.
The lady of my life (yes, there is one) works in a medical office these days. Today (yes, Saturday) she was working there half-day when there was some sort of minor emergency, and the call went out for a lighter. Apparently for some operation that needed to be performed on a (screaming) child’s foot a paper clip was just the right tool, a needle would not do, and the (woman) doctor insisted on sterilizing the paper clip with an open flame. I have no idea why alcohol would not do to sterilize it, and yes, I did ask. Maybe those with more medical background than I have understand all this.
I guess it’s not that surprising these days, but there was no source of flame anywhere in the office. No lighter, no matches, nothing. There’s no point in my asking about things like batteries and candy wrappers or alcohol as fuel, cotton as wicking and electricity as ignition or other innovative ways of making fire, I wasn’t there and the people that were there were not into that sort of resourcefulness.
Anyway, they sent the lady of my life out, probably because she is known for being resourceful… compared to most people these days, and pragmatic… compared to most people these days, in a car to a gas station to pick up a couple of disposable lighters and some free matchbooks, and they all waited until she returned.
Really?
While I was being told about this, standing around in our kitchen, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt since I hadn’t gone out yet on a Saturday, I reached in a pocket, pulled out a lighter and flicked it into life. No, I don’t smoke, I just understand that fire is really that important. I could have just as easily produced a knife or a flashlight, and I have an electronic compass in my casual watch and another in my phone. That’s lounging around the house, not going anywhere. When I’m leaving the house I carry more. If I’m driving or walking more than a block or two, much more.
So, again… fire is important, people. The primary cause of death in the outdoors is hypothermia (which used to be called “exposure”) the failure to keep your body temperature up. There are lots of ways to prevent dying that way, but you can’t carry around sleeping bags and insulated pads and parkas and tents in your pocket. Fire is, as we are increasingly coming to understand, part of what makes us human, part of the definition of being human. The control of fire is the second most critical invention in the history of our species, second only to edged tools. Indeed, it is a minor miracle, in that our planet has just enough oxygen in its atmosphere for fire to be a controllable phenomenon- a little less and no fire would keep burning, a little more and no fire would be controllable, but we take this almost as much for granted as being able to breathe that same atmosphere.
Almost unique among creatures on this planet, we have no fangs, no claws or talons, we must sustain our body temperatures but we have no feathers or fur to help us do so, we are unable to thrive entirely on raw foods, we are, in short, incomplete and completely helpless without edged tools and fire, we have physically evolved into dependence on both… but we’ve reached a state where all the tasks requiring edged tools are routinely done for us, and the fires that we depend on to survive are all hidden within machinery. It doesn’t make our dependence less real, it just disguises it. If the infrastructure ever fails or is just not present, you will learn the importance of edged tools and fire very, very rapidly… or die.
Beyond just warmth and cooking, fire is useful for keeping predators at bay, controlling insects, signalling, drying clothing and gear, melting snow for drinking water, boiling water to render it safe to drink… the list goes on and on.
If you are at all interested in staying alive when unexpected things happen, You can and should be carrying at least one way to make fire at all times, know how to use it, and know how to control and manage a fire once you’ve got one going. Further, you should know multiple ways to create fire with things that might be at hand. The learning never stops, but every bit you learn helps.
Be good to yourself- enable yourself. Come to terms with fire, start to learn its ways, and you’ll be in a better position to survive and be more comfortable in thousands of circumstances all over the world. The ancients considered fire a gift of the gods, and whatever you believe about god or gods fire is most certainly a powerful gift, it is the height of foolishness not to be able to take advantage of it.
– Robert the Wombat