The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place

by Andy Crouch

This was once natural, indeed unavoidable. Almost every home once had a hearth, the fire that gave warmth, light, heat for cooking—and entertainment too, with its dancing flames and distinctive glow. The Latin word for hearth, focus, reminds us that fire was once the center of our homes. Fire is a marvelous tool—one of the first human tools. But it is not technology in the sense I’m using the word in this book, with its easy-everywhere simplicity. Fire is dangerous and difficult to work with. Tending a fire, outside or indoors, requires skill, work, and care. At the same time, fire is mesmerizing and beautiful. It is one of the only things in nature that glows on its own. Almost everything else merely reflects the light that comes from the fusion reactor conveniently located 93 million miles from our planet—still so bright that we can’t look at it directly. But terrestrial fire generates its own light, and our eyes are drawn to it, watching it play and dance.