The Undiminished Flame

The title of Richard Gunderman's upcoming Lake Lecture prompts me to comment on the flame image used in the logo for Conversations on Philanthropy as well as in the banner of this website. 

Prometheus' gift of fire to mankind is often cited as the earliest recorded reference to "philanthropy."  Prometheus' gift was in part an act of rebellion against what he saw as Zeus' tyranny and in part a bequest arising from his love of mankind, or more likely, his forethought about and embrace of the full scope of what it might mean to be human.   This complexity of gifts is one of the puzzles we seek to explore in Conversations.  The flame, too, invokes the fire of invention, the quest by men to engage and improve their environments, not only through the development of technology, but also through the creation of social organizations and orders through which people might mutually flourish.  I like to think of the fire of the forge and the fire of the hearth as reflections of one another.