F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

fire

All Around The Fire Pit

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Dad's Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)
Dad’s Fire Pit. (Photo © F. P. Dorchak, August 13, 2016)

What is it about fire that we so love?

I don’t mean all those massively destructive ones that ruin lives, but the far smaller, controllable ones that we love to sit or stand around and stare into.

The ones that seem to enrich our lives.

The ones around which we talk and weave stories and take in the crackling wood, dancing flames, and shooting sparks that fly off into the night?

I’ve read that fires bestow healing qualities to those who stare into them, and I do believe that must be the case. Maybe not so much a physically healing quality—but maybe so, who knows?—but certainly emotional and psychic healing. I love to hang around those kinds of fires. The fire pits…the camp fires. And my dad having one of these (I have to get one!) was really neat.

As the lot of us converged at my dad and stepmom’s place for our summer vacation and my dad’s 80th birthday, we hung out at the fire pit. Standing…sitting…trading stories. Conversation. Enjoying the night and the company (and Alek, Greg’s son, did a fine job of getting it started and keep it running—thanks, Alek!). On one of those nights, I stood and conversed with a friend of my dad’s who’s had a fair amount of paranormal experiences that he’d been wanting to talk about with me for some time. Every time we’d met, over the past few years, he’d bring up some really weird stuff…about how doors open or close without people doing it…or hearing footsteps in hallways while no one was there. That kind of thing. But he’s always been on his way, or we’ve been on ours. We’d always begin talking about the experiences, then would never really complete those conversations and I always got the feeling there was so much more he’d wanted to talk about. Anyway, it was fun finally getting to swap those stories in a continuous, uninterrupted conversation with him about both of our experiences!

But, it was also neat being in the “atmosphere” of the fire pit, where my other family members were also talking and laughing among themselves! While I was in conversation with my dad’s friend, I was also pleasantly conscious of the other conversations and laughing going on with the others, and it warmed my heart. Family members with whom I don’t get to see nor be physically around with much anymore, though we do communicate with in all the usual, technological ways of today. We were all standing and sitting in the backyard…in the night…around a warmly burning fire….

I felt the love…I felt the emotional and psychic “healing.”

What is it about being around fire pits?

I’m not sure…but I love it.

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Smokers—PLEASE, Take Your TRASH With You

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Cigarette ashtray
Cigarette ashtray (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can’t emphasize this enough, but smokers, please, take your trash with you.

I don’t really care whether or not one smokes, but I do find it curious that apparently many who do (based on personal observation) appear inclined to cast their trash onto the rest of us. So many smokers take issue when others get on their case about smoking…yet so many smokers cast their butts out windows, onto streets, and into fields.

Why?

What makes so many of you feel you can throw your trash in our faces?

The average smokers inhales 22 or so cigarettes per day. That’s a handful of trash every day. And I’ve never in all my life, ever seen someone toss their butt on the ground, grind it out–then pick it back up and take it with them to properly dispose.

Well, okay, maybe once, my unconscious seems to protest…I do seem to recall one such memory, with no specifics.

But, how would any of you like it if I came into your life and threw used cat litter, used toilet paper, rotten and rancid meat, at your feet?

What you do is no better. Trash is trash. You may think it small and inconsequential, but it quickly adds up.

Additionally, what you do—flicking your ashes and tossing your butts into the wild–can cause fires. And this is what got my interest, having dealt with the Waldo Canyon and other fires in our backyard. This topic came back to mind when one of the firefighters at a press conference brought up the topic, then also added that it’s also littering, which is wrong.

So, if you’re gonna smoke, could I ask that you kindly take a portable butt-can of some kind with you, or use the vehicle’s ash tray instead of the window?

Thank you.