Primitive fascinations can focus on things we modern humans don’t consider of much importance anymore. Yet, they are there, lurking beneath our consciousness, prepared to leap forward when the right moment occurs- like any night that yearns for the making of a great campfire.
Life is like a Campfire?
A past article, The Fly and I, discussed a thesis of immortality. Some folks actually read it and figured it all out. The premise described a final test in the afterlife which a soul must prevail in order to pass through to immortality. The test measures proficiency of an individual’s basic skills perfected during one’s lifetime. Kind of like that chemistry teacher’s pop quiz in high school, trying to find out if you were really listening in class; a test for which you could never study. Similarly, these earthly skills are not ones you can attain though education or any other self-assured means. These skills exist only within the realm of humility.
You can’t learn or purchase these skills, you can only discover them.
I’m not sure how all this works, I mean on the other side of mortality and all, but I have my own little ideas. Being a guy it is my lot in life to have some kind of idea about everything- only an illusion I know. If you discover your own simple skills don’t be surprised if here isn’t some cosmic wisdom that slinks in as a result.
Now I could use up a couple of hundred words here to explain this immortality idea again but if you want the initial description, please look up the above previous SW article mentioned. Anyways, I think I know another of my secret skills…and I think I am ready, when I finally get the call.
I make dang good campfires.
Sure I have made a bunch of them in my lifetime, and such skill developments are experienced based, but there is more to it than that. There is karma, Zen, faith, artistic talent, knowledge and all the likes of such that come into play.
Soon I plan to publish a book called ONE MATCH CAMPFIRE BOOK*. It will be small, pocket sized and designed to look more like the kind of book an intellectual would read on their bonding adventure with nature- an intended disguise. But within its humble pages contains all the information an individual needs to quickly and consistently create an impressive campfire-anytime, anywhere using only one match.
I suspect the ONE MATCH CAMPFIRE BOOK audience is men and women alike, as this primitive instinct crosses sexual boundaries. But it will be an awkward purchase.
If a man buys the Book he will have to admit to the cashier that he is buying it for some campfire-challenged friend, certainly not for himself. If a woman buys it as a gift for a man, beware, she might as well buy a book entitled LOVEMAKING FOR DUMMIES. If she gives it to the man in her life, it will not be well received. There is already a great deal of pressure on the modern male to prove his worth in a culture which sometimes can’t figure out why we really need men at all anymore. But nothing can diminish a man’s worth more than his campfire inadequacies. The Book might help.
If a woman buys the Book themselves there is no problem, because at the end of the day if a woman wants to learn something new, they just ask someone or read about it. Their point of view is, “What’s the big deal.” But it is a BIG DEAL- primitive things that lurk beneath the surface are always big deals.
The secret of making a great campfire, no matter what the conditions, and only using a single match, reveals many other illusive secrets of the universe. First, you learn to understand Strategies, both long as well as short-term. Second, you learn to understand the interrelationship between Art and Science- imagination and logic; a campfire must adhere to visual pleasing constructs as well as subscribe to energy hierarchies of physics. Remember, Einstein’s great work was most celebrated because of his imagination. And finally, one must learn the art of Improvising-improvising is all about faith. Faith is all about, well, the comfort of your knowledge as well as the comfort of your ignorance.
By Strategies you must first think like a campfire- Be the fire. What does a campfire look for in associations? What does a campfire want out of life? How does a campfire measure success? A human must approach each campfire venture knowing that no two campfires are ever the same.
Art and Science: Building a good campfire is all about understanding the concept of Threes. In the physics part of Threes, fuel can be categorized by three types: Starters, Base and Maintenance pieces of wood-fuel. The basic concept of making a good fire is in the understanding that no one piece of wood can burn by itself. Each piece of wood gains its ability to burn based on the relationship of other wood’s ability to burn. Every single piece of wood that goes into a campfire is significant and has value. Each twig, branch and log has a purpose; to establish their burn in order to create the necessary condition for others to burn. Each scrap of wood sacrifices itself in order to preserve the past, present and the future of the campfire.
In the Art part of ‘Threes’ you visually need to be aware of the Three Zones of burning; the actual physical construction and placement of the wood relative to the overall design. All of these constructs are ever changing as the fire goes through the pains of birth, growth and maturation; an infant fire, a mature fire and an adult fire all have different needs and produce different effects. Each progression has its own purpose and its own life timing-if one phase is rushed or delayed it will negatively affect the outcome of another.
Finally, a Campfire, like Life, is all about Improvisation. You plan for the worst, give yourself as many options as you can and be flexible when plan ‘A’ fails. Just as you can never have too much laughter, or too much love, or too much wisdom in life, so too you can never have enough campfire fuel. If you are going camping, assume it will most likely be raining. Start to collect wood (all three types) a few weeks ahead of time and keep them dry in a trash bag in your car trunk. While everyone else is huddled around their sputtering gas stoves in the mist, you will be circled around a blazing fire-toasty warm and all.
So, someday soon the BOOK will be published. It might end up being a best seller because it will be a book that everybody wants, and everybody needs, although nobody will ever admit they have ever heard of it.
But the net effect will be astonishing. Suddenly, throughout the world, everybody will have insatiable urges to go camping, or have campfire sing-alongs in their suburban or urban spaces. Folks will swamp the social network with advice and videos about their own campfire experiences. The entire planet will stand still as minds are thinking about building campfires; more creative, bigger campfires. Politics and wars will cease as everyone is abuzz with this new campfire craze. Campfires will become the new priority on the planet. All because of a tiny, well disguised book.
Such is the latent power of primitive instincts suppressed beneath the mask of modern civilization.
Is it possible a hundred years from now folks might still remember this single work of Bing Limousin? I guess that’s another kind of immortality. When some future streamer is searching the knowledge grids, using their Brain-Pod implant, they might stumble upon the following dusty notations:
Bing Limousin, an early 21stcentury Kentucky farmer and writer. Best known for his small book, THE ONE MATCH CAMPFIRE, an illustrated manual of the art of how to make campfires- Campfires were mostly a recreational use of fire, where small groups of mixed humans would gather in a circle around the fire in warmth and fellowship for the purpose of relaxation from the rigors of work (SEE-definition of WORK). FIRE: the combustion of air and fuel (usually from small sections of trees)-TREES: large plants that grew in the ground in this period, usually regionally indigenous, made of various cellular construction and outer coverings called leaves (SEE PHOTOSYNTHESIS). Some trees were known to grow as high as 1o to 15 meters!
…Dickens, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Limousin, still alive somewhere in time… Nah, it just doesn’t have the right sound to it. I guess I’ll just take my chances with flyswatters, wooden spoons and that single, dry match.
Ah, the illusions of greatness. It is as primitive to humans as the conquest of fire.
*© 2011 DreamHill Productions
