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Human's changing relationships with fire. Your thoughts?

I'm reading a wonderful book, "The Night Watchman," by Native American author Louise Erdrich. She is one of my favorite authors.

The story is set in 1954 when the U.S. government moved to terminate the Cheyenne tribe. This would force tribe members to leave their ancestral lands and move to cities. It's the story of how they fought to keep their land, homes and community.

This passage grabbed me:

"Finally, the men left the fire and went in for food. Patrice was alone. Once, her back prickled. She looked around, but nothing. She turned back and fell into a fire-trance, staring at the way the wood whitened at the edges as the fire glowed from the center. Just at the corner of her vision, something moved again. She looked around. At the edge of the woods, at the bottom of the trail, something or somebody was slipping through the trees. She watched it flickering in and out of the branches."

Since childhood, I have fallen into fire-trances, gazing into a fire. It's mesmerizing.

For over a decade, Washington State has a burn ban during the summer. On overnight backpacking hikes, I joked about sitting around the candle lantern, telling stories and lies.

Although I miss campfires, the risk is not worth it. With massive, explosive wildfires throughout the West, I now fear fire.

Your thoughts?

Photo: Sleepy Hollow fire in Wenatchee, WA burned 2,950 acres, destroying 29 homes and several commercial buildings. It was started by a mentally ill man with a Bic lighter in dry grass and high winds. It was terrifying. I was evacuated.

LiterateHiker 9 June 3
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4 comments

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0

sounds like what I'm going to go into this weekend while in a sensory deprivation pod. I need the relaxation after this week of move and unpack.

2

I go with the Red Cross to help with the aftermath of fires. One of my friends mentioned that he had been at Wenatchee, possibly that fire, helping out. I was there after the Campfire in California in 2018. It can be so destructive.

3

What you refer to as a fire-trance is in Africa called Dreaming the Fire. It is where you leave the present and are totally within your mind. It is as people describe using psychedlics but using only your mind and the ability to focus and go deep within yourself. It is not common in western, white culture. (I am Native American)

4

Unfortunately fire is as necessary to the forrests as oxygen is to life. It clears underbrush and dead wood from the landscape, fertilizing the soil and creating room for new growth trees..managing Wilderness area isn't just about keeping it clean, it's about allowing it to exist through all of it's life cycles.

@K9Kohle789 or Power companies Not repairing worn out lines..watching any animal in destress is horrorifying..

I agree. I now believe that one of the biggest contributors to the large fires we have here is the way we have managed wildfires. The indigenous people of America knew this and would set fires to keep the underbrush and flashy fules under control. We thought we knew better and suppressed fire for at least 100 years.
In addition to that we have built homes in areas where there is dry vegetation and hilly terrain which is hard to defend against fire.
We continue to burn fossil fules at an exorbitant rate, pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Climate change is real and I doubt we can do much about it at this point.

@19dacar52 agreed.

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