The Barn

Never before had I thought that I would be standing in front of a smoking pile of ashes that had previously meant so much to myself and my family. The view was horrifying, but elegantly simple. “What has happened?”, and “What will happen?” we’re just a few of the thoughts running through my head. I was mostly in shock, like the feeling you get when an ice cube slides from the bottom of your glass to your tooth and hurts like hell. The ironic part is that this shock was caused, not by electricity or cold, but by fire.

I had just left class and was heading to the next when I saw an almost frantic Mr. Godomsky. For a man that usually stayed level headed and calm he was especially tense. Pulling me aside he said, “Hey Bradley, could I talk to you for a second?” I said “Yes.”, but immediately thought that I had done something wrong. Sitting in an office, one on one, with a teacher of  a higher caliber than most was nerve racking and unfamiliar to me. I wasn’t mature at this point in my life by any means and all I could do was sit and wait for the news to be delivered. I almost had a sense of knowing that what he revealed would be a turning point in my life, the positive or negative effect remaining unseen.

The land that remains has since adapted into a four wall wooden structure built by hand and with the greatest attention to detail. It is an art to build, to create in an almost godlike fashion, and to be in control of the materials laid before you. This is the way that my father lived his adult life, attempting to be in control, to plan things out and stay constant to his vision. Unfortunately, you can’t control everything, if we could, the world would be a different place. Things would be perfect, wouldn’t they?

Perfection is a myth. I grew up learning that God is the only perfect being to ever walk the face of the earth, and that everyone makes mistakes. No matter your feelings about religion, it is a scientific fact that living things cannot be perfect. All it took in my father’s case was a poorly timed spark. I was told that it began because of all the lacquer being used in the spray room, and that all of a sudden a spark lit the whole thing ablaze. The spray was so thick in the air that the air was on fire for an instant, and then spread rapidly through the dry wooden building filled with the best tinder money can buy.

You can probably now guess that the Barn I am referring to started burning down, but you don’t know the extent of the damage. Monetarily the entire mishap was not for the faint of heart. My father estimated at the time around a quarter of a million dollars worth of wood, tools, and machines were totally and utterly destroyed. The idea of the money bothered me more than it did my father. I was scared that there wouldn’t be enough money to go back to school. Half of my family’s worth was destroyed in just one day, leaving me to think, “What will happen?”

Although this dealt a devastating blow, that wasn’t what bothered my dad. Woodworking has been my father’s passion since he was in high school, and he feels incredibly lucky to do what he does for a living and that he can enjoy his work. I would also like to say that he is incredibly talented. My father can fix just about anything, and is one of the most imaginative people I know. When the Barn burned to the ground, my father took it pretty hard as anyone would when losing a structure that they had built my hand 20 or more years ago. He had sentimental connection to the building which is why it hurt so much. Money isn’t connected to your emotions, but passion, determination, vigilance, love, and work. Those are the qualities that he relates and connects to.

Now construction of a newer and better building is underway, and my father is again building it by hand. This is true. The moral of this story is to persevere, not in the sense of “keep trying until you succeed”, which is one of the basic morals used by all motivational speakers, but perseverance that keeps you on your toes, the feeling that you can be thrown to the ground and that you have to deal with it your own way. No one else is going to do it, so you have to right the mistakes made, and tighten the grasp around your life’s passion and your overall goal.