Building the Dam Story

At the end, if there is success, one wonders how. Through this wonder one discovers the story. This blog is dedicated to that discovery.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Canyon journey



To be in complete awe is often more difficult that it seems. To see the river as awesome, especially as it is here, "The Little Colorado" to some it's likely to look like red water, stiff canyons and smell only of still air, instead of a magnificent product by and of nature that has no match.

What induces inspiration? Does it require a conscious act? To look at whatever one is viewing and deciding it is inspiring?

The workers at the Hoover Dam site may not have been inspired by what they were seeing for that's not what they were there for.

Yet in truth, even the smallest rock in one's hand can cause wonder, wonder that leads to further wonder, or inspiration. Inspiration to feel the worth in the moment as it is, the joyous momentum of discovery that happens as we experience ourselves experiencing the discovery...

On the other hand what may have been inspiring to the dam workers was the work itself. What they accomplished each day, how far they could drive into the diversion tunnels with their dynamite and shovels, how much concrete could be poured, how many rocks scaled in a day...

Thus, what inspires you may not be the same for me, depending on circumstances or how we see, not necessarily what it is we're seeing.

Living for success

A dam in the middle of the desert, a dam to manage the water, dictating where it should go, and to whom, and when, and also using that water for energy, the ultimate in control, accomplished. Yet it seems success is a slippery slope when it comes by way of control. The difference between a demand and a choice.

When the demand for the dam occured, there were many reasons, such as ending the flooding in the Imperial Valley so that this land could be used more effectively for growing crops, as well as to use the hydroelectric energy, powering nearby Las Vegas and outgrowing areas. There was also money to be made by the 5 companies that won the bid to build it, and Southern California could continue growing at its own fast pace. Yet also, the men who were paid the slim wages were now off the streets. It made the country appear as though an economic recovery was taking place.

Yet at the expense of men working a job that went against nature and not necessarily for it? Nevertheless, it was a job that developed character and culture, proving just how mighty men working together really can be, capable of building a monolith.

Presently there's a suggestion to put the unemployed to work on the oil disaster in the gulf. Pay them so much and get as many of them working, and this time, to solve a problem that's gone against nature.

Thus heroes continue to be created, as men continue to work on demand and on behalf of something much bigger than themselves. The rise of success in our post-everything existence, we do what can be done, every one of us, rich or poor, jobless or well etched in a career and we rarely for a moment look beyond the work at hand.

Living for success accomplished with control.