Sparks Fly Upward

I had a campfire in Mendocino for the first time in a while. (I didn't have many campfires on this trip because there was a fire ban in many areas. The only campfire I had myself was in Bruce Peninsula National Park, on Lake Huron.) I stood and watched the fire for several hours. When I was at Manchester Beach State Park, I sat and watched the ocean for a few hours. I also did this at a few beaches in Oregon. It made me wonder what is so compelling about watching fire or watching the ocean. Lots of people seem to do it. It's as unproductive as anything can be though, just watching the chaotic energy of fire or water.

Why are people drawn to chaos? It's been written about for as long as writing has been written. The book of Job poetically states, "Affliction cometh forth not from the dust, nor doth trouble spring out of the ground; yet man is drawn unto trouble, as sparks fly upward." Is bring drawn to trouble and drawn to chaos the same thing?

In a great 2011 New Yorker article, titled Sleeping With The Enemy, a Neanderthals genetic resarcher named Svante Paabo described early hominids, saying:
"They never came to Madagascar, never to Australia. Neither did Neanderthals. It's only fully modern humans who start this thing of venturing out on the ocean where you don't see land. Part of that is technology, of course; you have to have ships to do it. But there is also, I like to think or say, some madness there. You know? How many people must have sailed out and vanished on the Pacific before you found Easter Island? I mean, it's ridiculous. And why do you do that? Is it for the glory? For immortality? For curiosity? And now we go to Mars. We never stop"

A lot of people I've met on the road have asked me why I'm riding my bicycle for 5,000 miles and ~100 days. I don't usually have an answer for them. One I use often though is, "I want to see what is there." I guess I'm drawn to seeing what is there as a surely as sparks from a campfire will fly upward. Why? I don't know. Why did early humans find Madagascar without knowing it was there? I think Svante Paabo was right; there's some madness there.