I have had some of my most brilliant thoughts -- or what seemed so at that time -- when I was sitting near a fire at night in the mountains. When we hiked in the dark months, darkness came at 5 pm or before. We had 5 hours until bedtime. Looking into a fire for 5 hours is mesmerizing. I did not know as I sat near those many campfires years ago that earlier humans had similarly sat around campfires for nearly 2 million years. Nor did I realize that their fires, like ours, provided a social space during evening hours. Imagine the conversation around those fires almost 2 million years ago when the whole tribe depended on that fire for protection from predators.
