some men go to Mars, others pay attention to the Earth

The first time I heard this story, I was in my late teens. I didn’t really share it with anyone else. Years passed, and I had almost forgotten about it when I was taking care of some children and needed to come up with a way to distract them. I asked them if they wanted to hear a rare story and they clamored yes.  

After sharing it, I remember the first child, who might’ve been about ten or eleven, immediately expressed his distrust that the story was really true, and he declared my grandfather was probably playing a trick. 

I acknowledged this might be possible, even though I didn’t believe it myself. Then his younger brother interrupted. He asked me, “What do you mean he was cooking on a fire? Do you mean a stove?” I smiled and suggested to the first brother that there might be a different interpretation with which he could negotiate some kind of accord. His younger brother was not aware of a way to even cook food without the innovation of something like a stove.  

Perhaps this story is impossible, at this time and in these places in which it might be very difficult for some people to listen to a fire. But in places where people live in different configurations and with different everyday relationships, this story might be possible. Just like I said before he could cut in, “Certain things are only possible now that in the past few may have thought possible.

Watch an extended version of this animated video on the artist’s website.