"Daniel Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has conducted research that indicates an adult's fascination with fire is a direct consequence of not having mastered it as a child. Fire has been crucial to human survival for around one million years, and in that time, Fessler argues, humans have evolved psychological mechanisms specifically dedicated to controlling it. But because most Westerners no longer learn how to start, maintain and use fire during childhood, we instead wind up with a curious attraction to it — a burning desire left to languish."
Remember last year when we heard about that house in Tennessee that firefighters refused to put out because its owners had not paid their annual fire subscription fee? And everyone was all, "You're kidding, right?" Well, they were not kidding then and they are not kidding now. Not burning to the ground is a privilege, not a right. How long before cash-strapped municipalities start going up to random homeowners and saying, "Nice house you got here. Be a shame if it caught fire, wouldn't it?" I would not be shocked to learn that it is happening already.
Here's a timelapse video of wildfires in the mountains around Flagstaff, Arizona, which has had a very hot, bad week this past week. With apologies for taking any joy from the suffering of a faraway city, it's amazing and beautiful to watch. And with apologies to anyone who is ever seen in my company, I will now admit that I really like the embarrassingly bombastic and melodramatic ballads of the Christian/goth/metal band Evanescence. (That's their big hit "My Immortal" playing over the video.) Why is a mystery even to myself. Except that they had already nailed the "my-emotional-life-is-so-important-to-the-world" teen-reversion fantasy magic that the Twilight franchise has been taking [...]
