"Someday, after mastering the wind, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energy of love; and for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
It must have been a strange moment when our ancestor first handled fire. This early ancestor of ours probably had no idea the impact of that moment on our species. What was that quality inside our benefactor that caused him or her to decide to tame that fire, to keep it and share it with others of his or her kind?
Fire conjures visions of passion, mystery, and discovery. Fire hypnotizes us. We can stare into it, watching it stretch its way upward, crackling and snapping with a rudimentary kind of life. Was our ancestor caught by fire's beauty?
Fire is paradoxical. It burns all that it touches, yet warms all who draw near. Fire destroys; fire creates. Did this ancestor of ours dream about the world to come, filled with warm cookies, a triple shot of espresso, and central heating?
Fire is the transformative combustion which still powers much of human endeavour. As long as we control it, fire helps us to shape our world.
But, fire doesn't give us a motivation to shape our world. Fire doesn't stir us. Fire doesn't challenge us to become something more than we already are.
Love does.
To all of you out there who are curled up in bed snuggling in for a lazy morning, I send this message of love to you. Revel in your lover's arms this morning. Enjoy a quiet moment. The cacophony of daily life awaits just outside your window, even on a Sunday morning. Stay here, if just for a few more languid and sensuous seconds, before stumbling back into the conscious life of responsibility which awaits just beyond the cold tiles of your bathroom floor.
It's not that this is a bad life; it's not. The life which awaits us is not something to be dreaded. It is something about which we should be fascinated. We find forward momentum by recognizing love flowing through our life, filling it with meaning, and lifting each little action we put into the world into another symbolic expression of the beauty of our existence.
Unlike fire, love is not merely hypnotic. Love offers us a robust life. It is not just a transformative combustion that allows us to transform energy from one form into another. Rather, love is the transformative combustion that allows each of us the opportunity to burn away all sad misconceptions about who we are so that we might finally become that beautiful being which we were always meant to be.
So, lay your head back down for a moment, touch your partner softly, and tell him or her how his or her presence has made your life more interesting, satisfying, and fulfilled.
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