At the museum I was particularly drawn to a  couplet of photos of controlled burns in Missouri. The photos brought about the discussion of humans having the power to reset origins. What does it mean to “reset an origin”? Are resets really origins, or just pauses? 

As someone who was raised in rural Georgia, burning fields were a reasonably common occurrence. Forest management, farming, or prairie restoration are all benefits of controlled burns. While it may seen counter-intuitive to set ablaze the area trying to be helped, burning the area in a reasonable, safe manner can reduce build up that can lead to more serious, unconstrained fires later. It also kills any weeds and many pests that may be living in the area. Humans take to prescribing burns to areas that are or are in danger of becoming unaccommodating to their plans.

Of course, controlled burns are not a total reset. The land is still there, if seared, and many of the same wildlife return after a settling period. For a while though, the land is a black slate. Any growth is burned mostly flat and any wildlife is scared away if they survive at all. After a fire, it’s quiet. The chirping birds flee their nests in terror. Rabbits leave their burrows, scrambling to find shelter before nightfall when the coyotes will emerge from their slumber to find their hunting grounds completely altered. After the settling period, when the smoke has cleared and the ashes start to scatter, most of the animals return. They look for their homes; if they have been destroyed, the animals start to rebuild.

Perhaps it’s not a reset at all, but a pause. For many animals, the controlled burns are the human equivalent of a regular natural disaster. Home are destroyed, families are separated, life is lost, and no one can point a direct finger of blame. An animal has no concept of a controlled burn, nor can they differentiate between a controlled fire from a wildfire, because they are not protected from either. Although I have never really thought about it, I suppose hurricanes and earthquakes and wildfires bring about their own kind of origins. The start after a pause, a major life shuffle, is indeed a type of beginning, a type of origin.

Is it right for us, as humans, to make an origin that disproportionately negatively effects other life? Can we ethically burn down the homes of wildlife for the convenience of growing a better crop? Is it okay to create these origins if it’s with the intention of creating a pause and not a completely new beginning? I don’t have an answer to these questions. I can’t help but to think of how many people lose faith after being affected by a natural disaster swearing that if there were a higher power that controlled those events that they would have prevented it. Here, are we the merciless gods? Is there a higher power doing exactly as we are, creating an origin to create a gain that we could never possibly understand?