Did you know that the writer and director Guy Ritchie invented and sells his own custom BBQ grill? He calls it ‘The Gentleman’, and it sells for between £2500 and £50,000 depending on how many seats you want.
Allegedly, there is nothing that makes Ritchie happier than hosting, cooking, and making people comfortable around a fire. Isn’t that strange?
No, not at all… obviously.
Now, whatever your stance on the man or his films, this enjoyment of hosting is not something that should be at all foreign to you. It is an enjoyment reserved in praxis for those who have ‘enough to go around’. It is a social practice wherein one’s wealth and power serve as conductors in the further generation of connectivity and stability within a collective or group.
When I say ‘enough to go around’ I intentionally divert away from two extreme opposites. The first camp I exclude are those who give, but have not enough. When the generous ‘don’t have enough’ or simply a surplus, the receiving party cannot deem them magnanimous nor stable enough to be considered for a role of ‘provider’. This isn’t a bad thing to any degree, infact generous people are equally given loyalty by those who are blessed with their good deeds, I simply mean to differentiate between those who have enough for several good deeds, and those who simply wish to share what little they have with those they choose.
The second camp being those who give, with the intention of garnering loyalty or favor, yet have not the resources to do so. These parties often have very selfish intentions and aim to show more wealth and abundance than they truly have.
It is clear that protection and comfort are driving factors of the human spirit. No matter the circumstance, we constantly strive for that which would satisfy our human urge to care for those we deem as our tribe. This cannot be accomplished in one deed but rather through the culmination of several. It is the ultimate goal of man to not just survive but thrive. In order to reach this pinacle, those of its following must create strong walls, provide resources of value and eliminate threats wherever they may arise. Those that do not feel this urge are in themselves, not entirely whole. Suffering both personal and spiritual displeasure, these individuals ultimately plague their own lives with formulated and false struggles.
Do you know why we progress in all fields and constantly grow?
It is because since the very beginning there has been no greater position for a man than that of the provider. It fills us with pride, and drives our every move in this life, and possibly the next.
The fire represents the gathering, and the display of one’s provisions and comfort. The hearth, the hall, the feast, the fire. These are subconscious symbols that our brian enjoys metabolizing whether we know why or not. Symbols are so very deeply rooted in our psyches as organisms, and some things and ways we act go so far back that they even supersede many components that make us feel like us.
Remember to always scoff at those who say ‘I’m a lone wolf’ with some sort of false pride. It is so factually untrue that the amount of mental summersaults that damaged person must have undergone would put them right at home in the Cirque du Soleil.
Together around a fire with other men who yearn for responsibility is one of life’s highest glories. Where we might stand cold together in the night — no matter the weather — and to create an ancient friend through the sacrifice of the forest’s debris, this is the highest of all things. The ‘need fire’ (Nauthiz).
To build a great hall or home around that fire, and host gatherings of many there, and to feed their hunter as well as their families; to fill their ears with song and stories. This is the thing that keeps us getting up as we are constantly beaten back by the waves and death throes of lesser experiences.
Yet, even those demons and shortcomings that we thought kept us small for so long, did no such thing. They built us higher than any man who felt anything short of their gnaw.
Even those beasts and sorrows have a home in the halls of great men who still have tongues, and now drape themselves in the finest of garnets. From fine seats at the end of firelit halls do those stormborn sons of the Allfather wag their tongues for tales long gone.
And all those who love us and need us will listen with intent. With ears, eyes, mouths full. They will yearn for the cold as they sit amidst your warmth. And there is nothing greater than this. To have fulfilled your duty as a man of industry, and to inspire those of youth to become as cold, or even colder in the search for their own halls.
For us and our people, we gather weekly in the woods and share the various foods, drinks, stories and songs we have attained so far on our journey towards the hall. And as our numbers grow, so too does the warmth around that place we built so long ago.
To keep healthy discourse, competition, food and flavor is to keep a healthy group of growing souls as they care for one another amidst nature, our oldest ally and foe.