Poem

People are afraid.
They want to make sure they will be covered
in the event of a fire.

Don't they know that the world is already on fire?

A fire is a process of turning cold materials into heat and light.
For an eternity the materials are cold, then for a brief instant they are warm, radiant.
The fire is life, you do not try to force it to keep burning.
And as with life, you can smother a fire, crush it, kill it,
but you cannot destroy the beautiful natural laws
that promise us that warm, brilliant fire will come to us again and again,
whenever given the chance.

Like a strange, rich fire we are also burning,
also turning cold materials into bright, ephemeral glimpses
of the otherwise dark world around us.

Because we are a fire we are not for hire.
Looking at life you can understand its ways, and understanding will bring immeasurable benefit.
But in almost every interaction I see
people trying to change fire, trying to force it!

People are playing God, a God who doesn't understand anything about life--
but all you have to do is play.

A beautiful, creative, 35-year-old woman sits alone in a cubicle, seething.
She has been trying to help someone do something impossible,
because it has been documented that it is possible.
She is under the gun, she faces hours of toil without compensation.
She drags her feet through a life that is no longer hers, and dreams of the past and the future.

Perhaps moreso than helping customers do impossible things that no one understands,
she would be better suited to helping her husband and children to see
what is possible.

But the natural law of the fire of life is banished from this house.

A couple cubicles from this woman resides a descendant of a great U.S. president.
This man is burningly brilliant; his mind is a perpetual motion machine.
Unlike his sad colleague he enjoys his work, and he's very good at it.
Closing tickets from dawn till dusk, he focuses his brilliance
on helping his company save face.

Get this man alone and you can get a glimpse of what his mind really wants to do.
When he has a free moment he spends it learning everything!
But as things are his mind stands shackled,
trading a precious brilliance for a salary and "encouragement".

My friend, you are a fire, and if you are allowed to burn
then we will have another Sun.

But the natural law of the fire of life is banished from this house.

People are playing God, a God who doesn't understand anything about life--
but all you have to do is play.

from Wikitaba