In Australia, winter is over today. In a way I’m sad because there is something magical about having a fire and huddling around it while the winter winds blow or the rain pours down on the old iron roof.

Of course, our combustion fire has burned almost continuously for three months. We stack it of a night time and, when morning comes and the frost is heavy on the ground, we hurry to the family room and luxuriate in the glowing warmth and drink hot tea or milk coffee.

I suppose fires are something that are dear to humans and have been since they lived in caves. Perhaps the appreciation of a fire is in our genes, has been handed down through countless generations since the time of the sabre tooth tigers. Then our ancestors used fire both to keep predators at bay and to survive the freezing winter temperatures.

These days we don’t have to fear such terrible beasts of prey but there are other predators afoot who threaten us. Who, you ask?

There are politicians who would take our children and send them to war in faraway places using spurious justifications. There are politicians that keep us in a constant state of fear by falsely claiming that people around the world want to attack us and take what we have.

Then there are kidnappers who would steal our daughters and sons for ransom or for sexual pleasure. And there are home invaders who would smash their way into our home and assault us or kill us and steal our belongings.

There are clerics who would fill our minds with silly superstitions, who would promise us eternal life is only we would believe in some mythical god and give generously to the church or mosque. Such clerics and their female counterparts all too often engage in sexual molestation of their flock or father children despite the fact they claim celibacy.

Then there are capitalists who would happily take all our money and who don’t care if they leave us destitute. There are banks which keep us on a financial treadmill for most of our lives while they pay themselves million dollar bonuses. There are insurance companies which have cunningly written contracts which allow them to weasel out of paying us should calamity strike. There are credit card companies that loan us money we can’t afford to pay back and gambling institutions that beckon us to get rich quick while they know that most people will lose.

Then there are the manufacturers who make products that they insist we should have if we are to be happy. On our television we have endless advertisements which exhort us to buy, buy, buy, no interest to pay for years, etc, etc!

We need to make our homes safe from all these prowling predators and keep our home fires burning brightly so that our home is always warm, is always our fortress, our refuge regardless of the storms that life throws at us.

You know what? I might light the fire one last time!