‘He who lights a match in the dark
is inventing fire.’
(Borges)

The poet wonders at the daily event. The mystery of fire is revealed in the obedient flame. Wild nature meets human need in the domestic task. We have in our hands the novelty of creation itself…, if only we know how to feel it and value it.

We have done it so many times that we are not struck any more by the miracle. It is so commonplace that it is not worth the trouble mentioning it. Matches come by the dozen, in boxes, in parcels. Take any, strike it, and light it. The flame sprouts. Bring it close to the stove, the paper, the cigarette, and wait for a moment. Fire lights fire. Shake the match, put it off and throw it away. Transaction over. Who ever paid attention?

Books have been written, fiction has been created, fossils have been investigated, movies have been made on that process of processes and that moment of moments in which primitive man and woman discovered fire and learned how to light it and keep it and use it in a cultural leap that changed for ever their life on earth. And that moment is ours every day when we light the match in the dark. Let us relive its magic, its charm, its wonder with the primeval innocence of the first human being who nursed the new fire in their hands. Every humble match is a Holy Saturday in its Paschal Candle. Let us celebrate in faith the liturgy of our daily redemption.

Fire is still today the most awe-inspiring of all elements. The signature of lightning, the ashes and the heat, the conflagration of the entire forest. Today that wild and frenzied and orgiastic and savage power dances humbly at our fingertips, obedient like the genie in the magic lamp, ready to come at a gentle rubbing and to depart with a blow of air. Cosmic powers of creation and destruction, now within responsible reach of our mortal hands. Let us know we are masters so that now we can serve.

All that in a humble matchstick. Novelty, wonder, strength, surprise, imagination, poetry. The repeated act becomes again brilliant premiere if we know how to look at it each time with clean eyes and joyful heart. Daily routine washes away the colours of life. Consumer markets shut in the god of fire in a matchbox. Magic dies in our hands.