The gentle kiss of a flame

As I sat in my apartment today, I found myself staring into the little feisty flame burning atop my candle. Transfixed, I picked up the candle and started to play with the flame.

After a few minutes of quickly moving my finger through the little fire, I began to notice that the flame had a peculiar feeling - strange as it was, it felt like it had mass. But how could something like fire have mass? Every time I passed my finger through, it felt like the flame "licked" me - licked me.

Fire has so long stood as a symbol of life, a symbol of prosperity and knowledge - fire is something that man, and man's modern civilization, could never do without. What if fire was actually alive? What if fire, regardless of its shy, coy, and often silent nature, had a mind of its own? Personally, I think something that has stood for so long and so resiliently as a symbol of life must be alive itself. It's often stubborn, not starting when we want it to, and it moves in the wind like a belly dancer on a stage; sounds alive to me. A funny thing fire.

I think fire has just earned itself a special place in the Hierarchy.