Fire: “What are you doing here? Fool. I’m god here. You’re neither wanted nor needed. It’s over. Have an ice day!”
Ice: “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
Fire: “Bah. In war, it is I who kills. Flame-throwers, the gunpowder propelling bullets, bombs, and best of all, but rarely used, atomic fire. Oh, it warms my heart to see.”
Ice: “Yes, but I am your best partner, though you know it not.”
Fire: “You? Hah. Okay, I grant you, frostbite and cold have destroyed the bodies of many. Napolean and Hitler and Lord knows who else’s armies. But still.”
Ice: “No, you’re foolish and rambling as ever. I’m not talking about how I can help you kill. I’m talking about how I prepare the ground for you. Make people not care. Encourage the turning of a cold shoulder, a blind eye. Without me, people might never turn to you.”
Fire: “I doubt it. Fire begets fire. Hate begets hate. What does your little chill of indifference have to do with it? Be gone or I’ll melt you to water.”
Ice: “Perhaps. But I might douse you to smoldering embers. I suggest you think about it. We can work as partners. Each making the other stronger. Actually, we have been partnering, but I’ve never gotten the credit I deserve. You’ve ignored me too long.”
Fire: “Hah! Not nearly so much as you have ignored me! You’re useless without me!”
Ice: “Fine, if that’s the way you feel, then this is goodbye. Forever.”
God smiled. Humanity prospered.
How the Nightingale Learned to Sing
Essays on America: The stopping rule
Essays on America: The Update Problem
The Loud Defense of Untenable Positions
petersironwood 
Merry Christmas, Peter. Enjoy your holidays, and see you next year.
Thanks! You too. Sorry I missed your comment. For some reason, WordPress buries “real comments” like yours in a haystack of my links to other writing.