fireplace never used once in 8 years
I guess the fireplace has become the vestigial orifice of the modern home.

I confess I have never enjoyed the nuisance of feeding a fire just when its crackling glow had carried me off into raptures of repose or romance or ruminations on matters deep and ethereal. Still, I suspect, the experience of a real fire close by, a serviceable fire for cooking or for heat, goes back in our DNA almost as far as the experience of the sound and feel of water.

Recently, a British Medical Journal reported surprising results with Alzheimer's patients who were taken for a swim once a week. Patients who had no apparent emotional connection with life around them experienced obvious pleasure when engaged in their warm swim, and the results were lasting. Difficult patients became more serene.

What do we lose when we cut ourselves off from some of these 'primordial' experiences, like sitting close to a real fire or floating in a body of water? What do we lose? Perhaps more than we know.