On Thursday I decorated a mason jar to serve as a candle holder. I really like it and I'd really like to use it, but we're not supposed to light candles in the dorms, and I don't have a lighter.
Now, my birthday was a few weeks ago, so while my parents were visiting we got a cake and covered it with candles and had a little party in my dorm. Since we've got a ton of candles at home, my mom left the birthday candles and the book of matches in my possession, on the off chance I might need either while at college.
Perfect, right? I was just jones-ing for some candle-light, and now I've got matches, so I'm all set, yeah?
Not so much.
In the past week for my expository writing class, I read
The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. Personally, I find the Time Traveller in this story to be an idiot, for many reasons, but specifically for his usage of matches. Upon realizing that they amuse the cute futuristic species and scare the frightful futuristic species, he burns through them faster than a spark on a line of gunpowder. He has no thought for whether he may or may not need them, and wastes them all. When he happens to stumble upon another matchbook, he proceeds to accidentally burn down a forest with them.
Thus I'm perplexed--I mean, I can't just go lighting matches 'cause a little candlelight is pretty. What if I need them for some abstract use somewhere in the future? I've only got eighteen matches. I've got to economize my matchbook.
