Definitions (NOT fiction)
I spent part of April 5 on a training meeting with the local volunteer firefighters. It seems that a building near the airport runway was condemned, since it was under the flight path, and an impediment to progress, so the house was to be burned down, and the County Fire Department had arranged for the house to be used for a training meeting with new firefighters to illustrate the methods of burning and fire prevention.
These men love to burn things. Somehow, firefighting appeals to some who love fires, and a few of these fire experts seem to get a great thrill out of torching structures. The house was set ablaze, then we doused it, and let it get hot again, and attacked it repeatedly until everyone got worn out with the exercise and the fire was allowed to burn out of control until it consumed the house.
Watching the house collapse, I wondered about the efforts of humans to construct anything so useful and marvelous as a house. I've built three houses myself, and understand some of the details of construction, having assembled the homes item by item. I watched as a piece of galvanized metal wrinkled in the heat and fell to the ground in flames. "That's a piece of Z-bar," I said, remembering that I had installed pieces of this material myself, to separate pieces of wood siding, stacked one above another, forcing the rainwater running off the side of the house to the outside of the piece below. Installed properly, I remembered, it will effectively protect the exterior walls from water damage caused by rain on the exterior. I had used 8-penny nails, and found them too thick to hold the Z-bar in place without warping, and so I had found that a 6-penny nail placed at each stud, i.e., every two feet, did a good job of keeping them in place. The pieces are sold in 10 foot lengths, and the pieces should be overlapped at least 4 inches.
I know a little about installing Z-bar, and the siding, and the floors, and ceiling rafters... I couldn't help observing how some people work to put things together. I like houses, and take some satisfaction in knowing that I have assembled almost all of the components of a site-built house.
Some people get satisfaction at seeing something being destroyed. A few bombs over a city do the deed of terrifying a populace into surrendering their tyrannical government -- or whatever the justification is. Reputations are made, wars are won, progress is made, by bombing.
Still, the things of human civilization have no value if there is more damage done to them than construction. On the balance, there must be more of positive construction than damage due to fires and bombing raids, if there is to be anything at all for the victors to claim as the spoils of their victory.
I've found it hard to believe that some -- presidents and generals -- think of their contribution to humanity to have been through the wars they have fought and the conquests they've arranged. The real progress of humans must be through the houses they've constructed, the services they'be provided, the food they have grown.
Once the fire had been allowed to take its course, it took minutes for the roof to cave in. The walls, being adobe, withstood the fire, but the floors gradually burned through. The aluminum screen doors, and the thin aluminum roofing, disintegrated and vanished as a vapor. Most of the material of the house was airborne by three in the afternoon, when we left it to smolder through the weekend.
I'd like the greatest contributions I've made to be some progress toward educating the public, constructing living spaces, growing useful food.
Some find wars and fires to be their calling.
economic notes