Incendiary Monomania and 'Nuked by Nice'

I have been working a bit on my book. It involves fire. So I read my books on fire. And about firejumpers, and arson, and Waterbombers. As a worker said after I talked for five minutes about how wonderful forest fires were, “You like fire a bit, don’t you?”

Do I tell her how my grandfather taught me how to make fires over two stories tall? How to make them hotter, to create 'Chimney's of air flow'? Naw, leave that for next visit, “Er…yes. I have a bit of ‘pathological fire-setting’, now I don't have 'Pyromania' you understand." Make the 'me nice and not dangerous smile', "See, I prefer the 19th century term, ‘Incendiary Monomania’”

Worker: “Mono…wha?”

Elizabeth: “Monomania, you know, times of total and utter fixation upon that beautiful flame, which really only wants to live and reproduce and just because it happens to want to consume every thing on the planet doesn’t make it ‘bad’ just...hungry.”
Worker: “Eh….er……”

Oh dear, oh dear, they don’t look reassured by my calm logical explanation. I tell them, “Don’t worry, Linda doesn’t let me have matches anymore, or even let me set myself on fire.”

Worker: “Yourself….ON fire..” Their face manages to make it look as if they are backing away even though they have no where to go.

I talk in that ‘trying to talk very fast so they don’t call the police or run and hide’, “Well, there are many substances which burn at less than 98 degrees.”

Worker: “Ahhh!”

“Yes, the important thing is not to Oxidize the fire by moving your arm around a lot when it is on fire, yes, that is bad. Also hair burns at far less than 98 degrees, as do hair bangs, and eyebrows.”

Worker: “Yeah, I think I need to go wash some dishes.”

The important thing is to remember: 1) lots of safety precautions and 2) don’t ever say, “Don’t worry, there’s no way this could get out of control….”
And if you end up looking like Hello Kitty here, then maybe it is time to seek professional help.
At the postcard project yesterday, I got NUKED by nice. Love Bomb asks people once a week to spend five minutes to leave a comment online with a person who is doing good, needing some cheering up, or could use some love. I think it is a brilliant idea so I joined. Confirm your email and they send it right to your inbox. They do the ‘bomb’ on Friday, and I encourage people to sign up: it is part of ‘It Starts With Us’. I figure that since ‘Love Bomb’ do the heavy lifting of finding someone to reach out to, I can certainly spend five minutes to help remind a person that they matter and what they do matters. Plus, I get to part of an organization that is ‘going to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!’......I mean, ‘change the world’ – Linda says I watched WAY too much 'Pinky and the Brain.'

Still, seems the right way to end the week.