fire fire burning bright
I've spent the past few days in a hired cottage: a change of scene, a break from it all. The high point of this visit – indeed, of any cottage holiday, in my books – is the open fire in the sitting room.
I love a fire. I love arranging the kindling, propping up a log, lighting the match. I love watching the flame take hold and grow from a tentative lick to a thriving roar. I love the absorbing glowing flow of the yellowy-orange light that dances and twists in exquisite shapes.
I also love the cosy atmosphere produced by a wood-burning fire. It becomes the focus of the room, creating a domestic tableau as ancient as human culture. How many thousands of generations have gathered around a fire and gazed into its depths, mesmerised? How deeply ingrained in our psyches is this simple act of staring into the burning flames?
Then there's the element of ritual, particularly of burning away unneeded things and marking transitions. There is finality to burning, and no going back. How many old journals and letters have been offered up into the heavens as smoke and ash? How many belongings of loved ones have been surrendered to posterity? And how many effigies have been destroyed in symbolic revolution?
While I've been here at the cottage, I've finished the proofreading for issue 9.2 of unpsychology magazine. Once the marked-up pages have been photographed and sent on to Lesley, the sheets of paper have been set down beside the hearth, to be used as fire-starters. It is a dramatic statement of completion, to burn away these pages and to commit them to their final state: a gesture of faith in the creativity of all who have been involved in the process of putting together this issue.
Fire has often symbolised creativity: the movement, the warmth and the light generated by the flames. The magical spark catches hold and grows into something bigger and brighter than its origins. Out of nothing it bursts into being.
This year we've created the Imaginings issues – a double-act celebrating words and visuals and music – and like a cosy fireplace we invite you to gather round, in enjoyment and enlightenment.
Issue 9.2 will be launched next week; we hope you are inspired and delighted by it.
