E Clampus Vitus- Railroad Pass

Historically, the Railroad Pass Casino deserves to be celebrated. Not for the fact it is the oldest remaining casino in Nevada, established September 1931, but because of why it was established in the first place. As an outlet of recreation and entertainment for those working on the dam.

It seems all work and no play makes the animal, human or otherwise, dull.
And there was nothing dull in 1931 as the dam was beginning to be the entity it would become. Men desired a place to meet women, um, duh. They also wanted a place where their play was not regulated, where a sense of freedom could be found. Not freedom itself, for that would be considered scandalous. No, the sense of freedom, up there near the top of the desolate canyon of the desert the men enjoyed the feeling of being nearly free.

Faces of a time

In this picture is grandfather, just one of many who helped build the Hoover Dam. He is the one that hides his fatigue, that has known easier times. There is however a greatness of spirit in his eyes. He has overcome his fear, the fear of not being able to take care of his family, and in this fear he has joined his spirit with so many others.

How do people overcome their fears but with the help of their friends? In work in war in waging a life of strife, there is a presence of patience among men and women. There is solitude in the most remarkable places and times. Amidst the building of the dam, these men may have been alone with their thoughts but had one another to see these thoughts through, to level, to balance, to befriend.

Unfinished business

Unfinished business. It seems we crave the sense of completion. Yet is it natural or have we been conditioned to not stop until a job is done? Sometimes, doesn't it seem we are actually working against what we've set out to accomplish by diligence just to complete something?
In this picture we see that even after the dam was "finished" there was work to be done later on. So maybe what is set down as completed, accomplished, is really just a moment when things are perceived that way.
Thus the idea of struggling to finish something is not what got the dam built two years before schedule. The workers didn't struggle with the work at hand. They just worked. They worked as if nothing else matters. And it seems this kind of focus is the reward for getting to a place where one feels "done" even if the job in the end will never be exactly that.
So if business is unfinished, it's deciding at the end of the day (moment) it's all that will be done. We take the hanky from our pocket, wipe our faces, look to the sky and go on.
Satisfaction is in the focus, the process, the outcome be what it will.