One of my first jobs was being a paperboy, which in some ways is as close as I'm ever going to get to being a Maine game warden who must do his job every day in all kinds of weather. It was brutal going out into those subzero mornings—but bracing also. I'm not sure I've ever felt as intensely alive. (People who avoid the cold deny themselves that experience of pure vitality.) And the best fires are the ones we find waiting for us at home when we return from an adventure in the freezing cold.