The Fire Carrier

A vision to clarify who we want our children to become, and why such an ideal is necessary to help them live better lives and to help us determine what really matters.

Hello Bar-setters!

I’ve been building towards this post for a long time. If you’re an intermittent reader, it may be beneficial to read last week’s feature post first:

Parents, You Are Not Enough

I’ve spent a lot of time making the case that we cannot raise a good generation without a clear sense of the kind of person that we are creating.  We need a clear ideal of the “certain kind of person” that we intend to create—a lodestar to be the model which clarifies and directs our parenting efforts, and which inspires younger generations to aspire towards more. Without further ado, here is the Fire Carrier.

What is a Fire Carrier?

In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a father and son fight to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. They are hungry and always on the lookout for marauding groups of bandits and cannibals. But, desperate as they are, they will not succumb to the savagery that surrounds them. Because they are carrying the fire. 

The father has developed this heuristic to remind him and his son of their humanity. The fire is a symbol of humanity’s pursuit of goodness. It represents the enlightened ethical tradition that they’d inherited and that they intend to pass on. 

Similarly, the Olympic Games begin with the lighting of the Olympic Flame, a tradition that goes back to Ancient Greece. According to the International Olympic Committee:

A few months before the opening of the Olympic Games, a flame is lit at Olympia, in Greece. The location recalls the link between the Ancient Olympic Games and their modern counterpart. From there, the Flame is carried for a number of weeks to the host city, mainly on foot by runners, but also using other forms of transport.

The Olympic Flame represents the light of civilization, knowledge, and the human spirit. It blazes on a torch that is passed from person to person in order to symbolize the tradition that we pass down from generation to generation. 

We use the term Fire Carrier to remind us of these ideals and the amazing heritage we’ve been so fortunate to inherit—the shoulders of giants that we stand upon. As Steve Jobs wrote:

I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds. I do not make any of my own clothing. I speak a language I did not invent or refine. I did not discover the mathematics I use. I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate. I am moved by music I did not create myself. When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive. I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with. I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.

Fire: A Blessing and a Responsibility

But the fire is not only a blessing. Carrying the fire alludes to the great responsibility that comes with our inheritance.  

In Greek Mythology, the Titan Prometheus steals fire from the gods and gives it to humans. The fire represents technology, ingenuity, knowledge, and the ability of these forces to drastically expand humanity’s power. Humans quickly find that fire can heat our homes and cook our meals, but it can also burn down our houses. Fire can help us forge stronger tools or it can burn us severely. 

It is the same with all technology. We must become capable of wielding the fire so that it doesn’t harm us more than it helps. We must master the fire if we are to carry it. 

To master the fire means to become:

• Capable of thriving in a world of supernormal temptations—capable of accessing the benefits of technology without succumbing to its destructive effects; 

• Capable of thriving in a world of mass advertisement, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and information overload;

• Capable of learning and adapting as the world changes;

• Capable of understanding the magnitude of our technological power;

• Geopolitically literate enough to help society responsibly steward that power;

• Data literate, physically literate, health literate, and financially literate;

• Well schooled in human psychology, behavioral management, logic, communication, relationships, and human fulfillment.

In short, the Fire Carrier is capable of mastering himself, understanding his context, and leading others. And to lead people, we must come to embody the best parts of fire.

Embodying the Fire

Fire is often used to represent passion, energy, and the engaged, activated, mission-oriented nature we see in all great people. We might say that a depressed person had lost the fire of life or that people like William Wallace, Teddy Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. lived with the fire. To be on fire for something is a way of saying that you’ve been ignited with a sense of purpose.

Fire can, also, be a source of renewal and transformation. Natural wildfires increase soil fertility. These generative qualities of fire are captured in the mythological Phoenix who is said to grow weak, burst into flames, and then to be born again from the ashes. Like the example of the Phoenix and of Christ on the Cross, our greatest strength often waits on the other side of our greatest adversities. 

We hope to embody the transformational nature of fire. As Marcus Aurelius wrote: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” 

Jesus offers the most obvious example of this. He takes the worst conceivable events—betrayal, torture, the killing of God incarnate—and transforms them into the greatest gift conceivable. 

The Fire Carrier Clarified

Youth development has to start with a vision. The fire carrier embodies our vision. We are trying to create a certain kind of person—someone who:

• Appreciates, maintains, and passes forward their enlightened heritage;

• Is a capable and responsible steward of the great technological power they inherit;

• Cultivates and forges themselves just as great tools are forged in fire;

• Embodies the transformational nature of fire.

To be more explicit, the Fire Carrier is someone who:

• Will contribute and make the world a better place; 

• Is capable and confident in their ability to weather the chaos of our unpredictable world;

• Takes responsibility for themselves and their community;

• Can rise to the occasion when the moment calls for it; 

• Will pursue what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful, 

• Will fight for faith, hope, love and all that they earnestly believe in;

• Will be steadfast in their efforts and endure.

At the center of this vision is a belief that:

• Each person yearns to see what we could be capable of and to work on behalf of a purpose larger than ourselves;

• And that each person is capable of greatness. 

Like all good ideals, the Fire Carrier is an impossibly high standard. It is a lodestar that calls out the best in all of us and compels us to keep striving to self-actualize—to become the fullest manifestation of our potential. 

More than just individually inspiring, I hope that the Fire Carrier ideal is socially useful. I hope that it can be utilized by teams, schools, churches, and other social organizations.

By committing to this common vision, families and communities will experience greater connection and a richer life. 

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Thank you for reading and sharing with anyone who you think might find this interesting. 

I’ve been long winded over the past few weeks as I spelled out the foundational beliefs that undergird this vision. If you want to catch up on those foundational beliefs, start with these:

Porn, Pop-Tarts, and the Infinite Scroll: Preparing Kids to Thrive Amid Supernormal Stimuli

Do Our Kids Need a Moral Equivalent of War?

What Subcultures Raise the Best Kids?

When Do You Become an Adult?

Going forward I plan to be a bit more prescriptive. I will still have posts where I point to important ideas, but I want to do more practical posts that focus on setting the bar—that point to norms, duties, expectations, milestones, books to read, etc.

Please let me know what you think of the Fire Carrier ideal, what I’m missing, or what you’d like to see from this vision. I’d love any and all feedback that can help me improve this project.

Carry the fire!

Shane