Many thousands of years ago, a bearded man came rushing into a narrow cave.
He shook the snow off of the animal skins that covered him.
Outside, the wind howled, pressing burningly cold air past the cave in a steady blast, snow moving horizontally in the wind.
He crawled inwards, an armful of sticks and shrub at his side.
Huddled into a corner, his family clung to each other, all of them shivering, hard, their bodies were near the physical limit of cold tolerance, severe hypothermia was only minutes away for his youngest child.
Scrambling, he pressed the shrub down into a pile.
He placed a chosen stick into another set of sticks positioned over each other, wedging it in, holding the sticks down, he inserted a thin cylindrical branch between them, placed his palms on each side, and began pressing them in opposite directions in quick bursts.
He’d been able to achieve a fire once before, months ago. But it was the only time he’d achieved it intentionally.
He began spinning.
His family watched, desperately waiting for the heat.
Slowly, slowly but surely, smoke started to emerge.
A tiny red dot began to form.
Seeing it, he spun the stick harder, his arms burning from the effort.
The dot got brighter and brighter.
And just as the tiny glowing dot is about to convert to a small flame, a gust of wind from the blizzard shifts the air in the cave, blowing it out.
He glanced upwards, his youngest daughters eyes were closed, lips blue.
He began working at it again.
His arms burned, he spun as fast as he could.
A red dot formed.
His family watching, hoping.
Brighter, brighter, brighter.
And finally
A small fire is born.
He slowly places small shrubs around it.
He shields the fire with his body, keeping the pulses of air from touching it.
Finally, when he gathers the family around the fire.
They huddle closely, soaking in the life-saving heat, saved from death only because he’d succeeded in creating this fire.
My answer is not that fire is the most underappreciated invention.
My answer is that the tool of man, the fulcrum of our evolution, the reason you sit where you sit today.
.
.
.
.
.
Is right there in your pocket: Lighters.
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