Monday, October 6, 2014

Fire

On it's own the literal chemical reaction has little smell, you can't touch it (well, you can't snuggle with it let's say) and it has been a fascination of mine my entire life. I melted green army men in my closet, stole my parents lighter to heat up a nail and make laser gun wounds in star wars figures, lit a mattress abandoned in the alley on fire where it smoldered for days under a gas meter, sent candles suspended by helium balloons in the air, made torches out of broom sticks and t-shirts, used any flammable aerosol to 'season' my clothes as part of making them look punk, torched countless crosswalk christmas trees tossed out on the street after the new year and performed many experiments on my siblings toys.

We use many expressions culturally based on our mutual admiration of combustion and flames, "she was on fire", "we burned them bad", "we torched the other team", "scorched earth policy" as well as "burned my bridges", "flamed me for saying that" and "I was blazed".
So, good and bad we have all had some kind of relationship with fire probably going back to primitive times.

You're probably thinking 'this is going to end in tragedy' but you'd be incorrect, I've never hurt any living thing or destroyed property (severely). I'm actually advocating the use of (controlled) fire and burning because my experience with it has been so cathartic and often exhilarating. I love a ritual, and when it came time to shred some documents (bills, hate mail, divorce decree, collection notifications, a formal reprimand and anything from the government) I scooped them all up and put them in my "Simpson's 10th anniversary" limited edition weber grill and lit those puppies up! It was so freeing to watch all those formerly important paperworks flame up and crisp to a rich black ashy color. Man!

As good as a few months in therapy and a ton cheaper.
So give it a try, find a nice safe place outdoors, pull out some of those items you've kept for no other reason than to torture yourself over your past transgressions, and burn baby burn. D'Enjoy!


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