Fire

I recently saw a documentary about firefighters. When I was a child I was fascinated by fire. When camping I was always feeding the bonfire. At home I would secretly and impatiently wait to be alone so that I could engage in my forbidden passion. I didn't see substances, or materials, or the occasional, doomed insect -I saw fuel. Everything was fuel waiting to burn in different and fascinating ways. One of my favorite things was to turn all the lights off and then trace circuits of alcohol across a large marble table to see the flame follow the path. Back then the little lab sets for kids had both sulfur and carbon... Salt wasn't hard to find in the kitchen cabinet. My first explosion was blind luck; I had no idea of how to make black powder. I never burned the house down. I don't know the origin or cause for this fascination with fire, but even today I like to see things explode, and the attraction isn't fading. Perhaps I would have been a much happier person if I had been a firefighter. Neil Young said: "it's better to burn out than to fade away" I agree -as long as the burning out doesn't last more than a second or so, otherwise it might get uncomfortable.