The hearth was the floor of the fireplace. A slab of stone or a row of bricks laid flat in front of the firebox where the sparks landed and the children sat and the dog slept. The hearth was the warmest square of floor in the house. The hearth was the first address. Before there were street numbers there was the hearth and the hearth was home and home was where the fire was. The thermostat is not home. The thermostat is a number on a wall.

The hearth was shared. The whole family sat around the hearth because the hearth was where the heat was. The father's chair was closest. The children sat on the stones. The grandmother sat in the corner where the draft could not reach her. The hearth organized the family the way a campfire organizes a circle. Everybody faced the same direction. The central heating vent does not organize anything. The central heating vent says every corner of the room is the same temperature. The same temperature is not the same as warm.

The hearth was where you cooked. Before the stove there was the hearth and the pot hung over the fire on a crane that swung in and out and the food tasted like smoke because everything tasted like smoke because smoke was in everything. The smoke was the seasoning you did not choose. The electric range has no smoke. The electric range has a timer and the timer beeps and the beep is the sound of cooking without fire. Cooking without fire is heating. Cooking with fire is cooking.

The hearth was the altar. Every culture that had fire had a hearth and every hearth was sacred. The Romans had Vesta. The Greeks had Hestia. The Irish kept the fire burning for a thousand years at Kildare. The fire was never supposed to go out because the fire going out was the worst thing that could happen to a family. The pilot light in the gas furnace is the last echo of the eternal flame. The pilot light does not know it is an echo. The pilot light thinks it is a safety feature.

Nobody sits at the hearth anymore. The fireplace is decorative. The gas insert has ceramic logs that glow orange and the glow is the memory of fire without the fire. The mantel holds photographs. The firebox holds a remote control. The hearth that was once the center of the house is now a feature in a real estate listing. The listing says gas fireplace. The listing does not say altar. The listing does not say home. The listing says square footage and the square footage includes the hearth but does not understand it.

See also: Flue, Chimney Cap