From the top of Ladder 2, I could see the Liberty Tower rising
from the memory of the Twin Towers and 360 degrees all around. It was cold, it was clear, it was
glorious. Then, a couple of blocks over,
reality returned. It is a senior
building, and Ladder 2 would be used to bring off survivors, patients, or
victims trapped nine floors up.
To have the apparatus explained, its function, its
maintenance, its performance, the cool tools of the trade, it’s mind blowing to
a civilian, even one with a collar on.
The flip side of the ‘coolness’ is that the apparatus is
part of the deliberate risk to life and limb to save the lives of others that
is the assumption of the Job. And that
is even more mind blowing to a civilian with a collar on. It sounds downright religious in its
possibilities, a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) thing.
Now, I suspect there is, in the
tradition of fire fighter initiation, something akin to the ‘swirly’ of the
bygone days of high school (what was a swirly back then would probably be
assault today), but I suspect even the chaplain would be worthy if he started
talking about how fire fighters are really like Jesus.
There is the culture of drinking,
smoking, and ‘colorful’ language to be considered.
But what I think real faith is not
in right words or proper manners. Rather,
in the face of danger, real faith is in the faces of those who would stand with
you, or those who would walk you out of the way so you don’t get hurt while they
can deal with it.
The Padre
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