One Word: Passing

 It was just a passing fancy, or so they said.  I'd get over it, move on with life.  And they weren't wrong...  Except that somehow, somehow the fancy never really passed.  And as I sit here, age 92, I'm finally ready to experience it for real.  And there's nobody left to stop me.

#FridayFlash #76: Why Crayons Burn

Asking the important questions here -- mostly cause I really should be asleep right now.  Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.

They say that in an emergency a crayon will burn for hours.  But how long will they burn when it’s not an emergency?  A joke.  An internet meme.  But every joke has a sliver of truth to it.   

Why do you think it is that the best artwork stems from extremes of passion?  Either super calm, quiet, and relaxed, or a mad frenzy, barely contained.  With few exceptions the masterpieces of the world were created in one of those mindsets or the other.  Why is it?  Artists are passionate!  Or so the working theory goes.

But is that really it?  Or is it actually that their *tools* are passionate?  The paints, the pastels, the pencils — they feed off the emotions of their handlers.  And so it’s logical really that handlers with emotions to spare, get better work out of them.

And as for those crayons?  Small children sometimes have the biggest emotions.  Too big even to be expressed as masterpiece art.  Big enough, perhaps, to light a room in the darkness.  Especially when fueled by the emotions surrounding emergency.

So to answer the question, how long will they burn when it’s not an emergency?  That depends solely on the mental state of the one asking for fire.   May the odds be ever in your favour.