It’s our first time living in the country. Storm Ashley was fast approaching, and the indoor leak we had thought had been resolved, well, wasn’t. Buckets and towels to the ready, with hopeful text to the roofer to see if they could fit us in, according to their priorities, post the storm.
Then the power failed. We hadn’t expected that.
We started to add additional layers, aka Michelin; until we realised that as urban dwellers, that noise in our head was the metaphorical hovering helicopter overhead, there to help us. We had a log burner, but were reticent to use it. As those from the city, we had never needed to reconcile ourselves with needing to keep warm due to a power failure. Normally, power is restored within a few hours.
So, we started to build a fire. How many years had it been since we were in the guides and, oh well, I was never in the scouts. In the country, there are seemingly oddities such as a stick store and a log store. We looked around and found a bucket of logs which we had tidied into a cupboard. Some sticks and a newspaper was located and we set to, trying to light the fire.
It took around fifteen minutes to get sufficient sticks to remain alight before we introduced a log. The primeval feeling of watching the log slowly, reluctantly, catch, and start to glow, was mesmerising. Our attention flickered from accepting the warm glow, to watching the flames dance this way and that, to concern that the log was about to go out again. Most of the benefit was the warm orange light coming from the fire, and I hadn’t noticed a tangible change in temperature as yet. Nevertheless, it was so comforting.
I wondered that in 2024, we had made progress, lighting a fossil fuel product. We had a supply of electricity, well not today; the oil we had for central heating needed electricity to work, but with that spark, we had no resort, no backup plan. Yes, the couple across the road had sought out which post codes were affected, and had located a pub which may still be open. – was that the solution?
The fire becomes a central feature for people to congregate around. It is the medium from where conversations may start. We have read about it in books from when we were a dot: around the camp fire, the story was told. Whether that’s in the desert – and oh, boy they can get cold. It might have been +45 degrees C in the day time, but it dropped below -10 degrees C by night (Oman, 2003) – it still works!
Where might we seek to return to meeting together, around a common focus, and have a meeting of minds?
Now to settle down and read some books
A fire is a thing of beauty , it warms, it comforts, it starts conversations . Strange that only yesterday we were together talking about log burners. Fire is biblical it purifies it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. “O Though who camest from above the pure celestial fire”.
I enjoyed it
Have you had a chance of living in a place that constantly has power failures? I mean that, in order to save electricity, the government cuts power regularly – it could be up to several hours per day / week. And have you had a chance to live in a time when the majority of people could not afford air conditioners, when the temperature could reach 50 degrees centigrade? Have you lived in a place where, in winter, the temperature goes down to 2 degrees centigrade and people cannot afford heaters? Imagine the plight of construction labourers working outside in the heat that touches 50 degrees centigrade and, as these laborers have to travel to their place of work, they spend their nights outside in tents when the temperature in winter goes down to 2 degrees. Yes, they use fire to keep themselves warm but cannot have fire throughout the night. Have you lived in a place where there are mosquitoes, especially in summer, buzzing in your ears while you sit to study or read or robbing you of a good night’s sleep? Well, I am talking about one such urban place in this world where I spent most of my life with all these conditions, just like many others have 🙂
Typically, when people offer such a response is ‘No’. We all have our experiences of life, all as rich in degrees as each other. I’ve walked around Dubai, and found people huddled around a drum with fire deep inside – for that were selling hot food on the road side. I’ve found people so thankful for the fire under the ‘lazyman’ boiler in Thumrait, as people poured cold water in one end, very hot water came out the other – to wash in.
The point of the post was that fire can bring people together, to find commonality in their plight perhaps, to share how they are, and to know that they are one.
There are things that draw us humans-a camp fire or a hearth, a table even a cloth spread on the ground -places that give us opportunity and permission to share our story. Whether it is just with one other or a group, whether it’s someone we know inside out or not at all. All of our stories are important and help us connect to others.
Wonderful
The title of this post says – “No Power”.
Fire can bring people together at a place where the population is under control. If many want to share the same fire, it can be difficult and people can be selfish even to share the fire :-). However, there are real life stories where people tolerated each other when survival was their common goal.