I spent a large portion of my day hanging out with my daughter, Brenda. This is a rare and treasured experience. It is such a bittersweet blessing to watch your children be adults - at least for me. In my confident youth I remember telling myself I'd never be that "old person" who spoke of regrets but self evaluation breeds thoughts of opportunities missed. I will decline to air those here with one bit of sage advice. Regrets are only a useful form of reflection if they inspire you to make a better effort, enjoy every minute, and accept yourself the way you are. Then put it away it is one of those emotions that hinder forward progress. That said, I want to share some of the things Brenda and I talked about.
Brenda is a seasonal firefighter. She works mostly dispatch but is happy to be in the field whenever the opportunity arises.
1. I had never considered the amount of intelligence that needs to go into containing a forest fire (or any fire for that matter). Brenda said that as crews are being assembled and organized the report providing the information they will need is 20 pages or more. Probably silly of me but the layman's experience is what you see in a movie - the alarm goes up and everyone scurries to their post with the voice of the dispatcher coming over speakers and radios just barking directions. Common sense says you need to know where and how big and maybe what direction the wind is blowing, weather and season. Maybe people with more common sense than myself would have already considered that you also need to know who it belongs to, what their rights and concerns of that ownership might be. One of the big issues in the desert west is water rights. If firefighters use a whole bunch of water that belongs to someone else is that infringing on their rights? There are people who would say it is!!
2. The number and scope of the agencies who must collaborate to put out a fire, fire fighters from separate organizations local and imported are a given but the effort may also include military and law inforcement and others. Brenda commented that just knowing the various lingo is challenging in order to keep communication effective. I noted that she's amazing and they are lucky to have someone with her varied experience. I could be a little biased but I don't think so.
To wrap up we watched Disney's Airplanes: Fire & Rescue. It was a fun movie. Brenda's comment "They keep talking about saving lives. For most of us it begins with saving the forest." New perspectives are what interpersonal relationships are all about.
As a cap to a great day we all drove to Grand Junction for dinner and a movie. I have to say, while the movie was cute and funny (Minions), the most entertaining part was the conversations in the car on the drive over and back. Derek and Brenda are great, attentive parents and Daevius and Xavey are typical teens figuring out who they are and what they want. It has been fun to watch it in person.
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