Fire and Water

 
Fire and water are gonna make you my daughter *

Fire flickers and burns. It is pure energy but in essence what is it and how does it form?

I think I might have been told in science lessons about plasma and agitated atoms and its need to be fueled by combustible materials. Yes, only certain things burn and others don't. This too is a mystery. Wood burns and flesh too. We've all had small burns by accidentally touching a hot iron or indeed leaving a match burning too long, so while we need it, we are also afraid of it. We inhale the smoke of dry leaves burning for pleasure, or at least it used to be one. Now in the age of avoiding 'health risks' we no longer appreciate this particular human habit.

Human beings don't eat raw food so fire is fundamental. Some people think they've gone past this because they use electric hot plates but it is easy to forget where electricity comes from. Well, some electricity is generated by the force of water passing through channels in dams so it is actually energy we are dealing with. Heat is a by-product of the transformation of energy. I think this is what entropy means. Nice word but what actually happens in this process of burning or of offering a resistant barrier to the passage of electricity? Is it not a kind of magic?

Because of its incomprehensibility, once upon a time such phenomena was revered. If we think about it, perhaps we, in what we consider an 'advanced' age, could reflect on whether we are that much wiser. Perhaps we could do worse than to revise our views on how much we do actually know about entropy apart from a capacity to observe the outward signs of the phenomena and how to harness it with greater sophistication. Is there still a case for reverence? We simply call it energy, otherwise energy use, renewabl energy, among other endless list of dull words that have been adopted, essentially, to mask our tendency to take things for granted.

Since people have gone beyond chopping wood, we now prefer using oil or gas which comes tapped and we have to only flick a switch to make some fire. The gas fire however is blue and goes only so high. We incorporate this into smooth marble tops with stainless steel appliance. Cooking, with all its steam and flicking oil, is something we once did in earthy, messy spaces. Many people now have open kitchens as part of their living spaces and boil their water there. we do love things to be pristine.

 
*Quoted from a song by Free.

 
Rome, 16 3 2007