A phenomena that I’m sure HDT didn’t see coming was the now lack of that kind of thing. No wood smoke rising from chimneys, not even coal fires belching soot ash and smoke into the sky. I suppose then you always knew if someone was at home. While the idea of little pockets of homes and hearths, of families and firesides dotted around the countryside, visible from the mountain is heart-warming, a lonely image for a Christmas card, was it ever a reality?
The truth of the modern times is not as pretty a picture. For this must have been the view of man for centuries, pockets of fire, of warmth and safety, or maybe not. Now it’s the oppressive orange glow of towns, the shimmer of electric lights that are not nearly as romantic, or near as lovely to look at.
Where am I going with this? It’s not as if the world is suddenly going to revert to a nonelectrical use of power. What’s behind the fireside? Is it families reading together, perhaps aloud? And what is behind the electrical light? Is it more screens and a blue haze, everyone has their own blue aura. Where is the cheer and the feast?