Can anyone be more welcome to a jobsite than a hungry man; a person who wants to work more than any other thing? There is a reason that the Home Depot parking lots are all lined with men from Mexico and Central America, and the reasons for hiring those men are inescapable. They are sojourners, travelers, strangers, vagabonds who have left family, comfort, pride, and safety for the promise of work. A few weeks ago we had the good fortune to have a man like this happen upon our jobsite.
Toby is a man about like me, somewhere in the thirties-to-forties age bracket having tried a number of different vocations over the years leaving him with a strong familiarity with construction. He works hard, shows diligence, honesty, respect and care. He is as good a man to have around as one might hope to acquire, especially by chance. In many ways he is better than I am, he is more hungry. A man who has not eaten for many days will do almost anything in return for a stomach which no longer aches, a mind who’s flutters have quieted over the care of small bills, the dry, soft wrap of a new pair of shoes. I have enjoyed his company and his work.
We also had special visitors today; a crew of three native Chinese granite installers. I can never tell if the most excellent of craftsmen even realize how rare their proficiency is, or how impressive their skills are to people like me. These men turned what had recently been stone, quarried out of a mountainside, into pieces of furniture in a matter of hours. And they did it without speaking our language; amazing. This land is great, and this land is going to get more and more beautiful as summer approaches. Soon the crocus sativus will have the company of countless blossoms.
albaniacalling 