Out of the Flames

14 years old, Camp Susque, Look Out Mountain

We were told, at the camp I went to, that it was started around a fire - a few men sitting around, talking, and contemplating how staring into the flames opens people up.  That cackling orange that starts out small and slowly builds, eating up all of the materials in its path, becoming bigger, roaring, and welcoming you.  Your face and hands are warmed, trickling down to your feet.  The attention is no longer on you or anything else; the fire has eaten that, too.  People might even start singing in front of each other.  Stories are shared, thoughts and questions are thrown around, or people might just stare and stare into the mysterious combustion happening in front of everyone.  

The other day I had the rare opportunity to facilitate ropes course activities and then fire building.  This was one of the tasks that my group of 13/14 yr old girls (8th graders) had to do as a part of a SHIPWRECK initiative where they imagined they were stuck on an island and had to save themselves: build a fire to boil water, catch a couple fish in the pond, build a shelter that can cover one person, and create an SOS signal.  

So, when you light the match, you really want to put your hand around it to protect it from the wind.....  

No, not on top of it.  See what happened?  

See, the flame will go up and burn your hand... 

You also want to find lots of little thin brush to feed the fire... 

Birch bark is a great fire starter.... 

What do you think?  Do you think you can rest the pot on those sticks?

They had no idea what they were doing.  Sticks were piled on top of each other, live branches were brought over, green leaves and grass were some thoughts for fire starters - so I threw in some tips...  

So, really what you want to do, is make a teepee inside a log cabin...

Remember, the fire needs oxygen, so make sure you create some space...

You guys have the extra challenge of wood being damp today...

Dirt will kill your fire, so it's good to brush it off the bark...

Fire ties most of my favorite memories together.  There is something about those flames that reconnect us to the mysteries that surround us, the power that exists, our ability to create, and the importance of our history.  Fire has caused me to stay up until the early hours of the morning getting to know people, reconnect with old friends, or celebrate a new year.  Shabbat was celebrated through dance around a fire on the shores of Lake Victoria, travelers were met in the desert of Chile, and Hogmanay (new year) was celebrated in a village in Scotland, or friends were made, for life, at camp.  

"The tendency to wander in wilderness is delightful to see.  Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning  to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."  John Muir, Our National Parks, 1901

Imagine what Muir would say now, since he considered people over-civilized in 1901.  The faces of the girls who made that fire revealed some of that joy that we are inherently prone to when building a fire, riding an ocean wave, arriving at the top of a mountain, or gazing up at the stars.  Our identity is not in our computer, phones, or cars that we buy, but out in the natural world.  I suspect it's because we didn't create it, and therefore, it will never cease to fascinate us.  Imagine what happens when we separate ourselves from it for too long.

Campy, Kumbaya, touchy-feely, bonding moments, heart to hearts... in our culture, we tend to use these words in order to make light of an experience.  But isn't this what we actually want most?  Don't great ideas come from these experiences?  Don't we feel most connected to others during some of those moments?  Why do I have to explain through research why nature or adventure experiences cause change in people's lives?  How did we get so removed from where we came from and what is that doing to us?

"I am because we are."  I learned that in Uganda, a culture that often thinks in terms of it's community.  I think the pull of the fire, that naturally causes people to make a circle, converse, and be present with each other, reminds us that we don't exist only because we think - we exist because of other people, because of connection, relationships, and this world that let us in, and if we don't maintain our connection with each other or that world, we begin to be alone with our thoughts and become isolated in a chaotic and confusing universe.

"...the human species had become 'autistic' in the way they relate to the natural world.  The origin of this autism is reasoned to be associated with Descartes' notion of mechanism.  Derived from Cartesian dualism, in which mind and body are perceived of as clearly distinct from each other, mechanism is the doctrine that all living things are in essences just machines... Nature was viewed as a machine with working parts that could be dissected, explained and understood... People have become deaf to its voices, stories and sources that nourished their ancestors in primitive societies."  Thomas Berry, 1988

Our thoughts are not enough, it takes a fire to pull us out of ourselves.

Students the same age as me in the above photo, getting ready for 9th grade at La Vida, ADK (2011)