Wayfarer’s Tales — by
STRAIGHT UP
I was talking to Charlie about some renovation work going on along the harbor side. New flats were being put up, new paving was being put down, new cafes and pubs had opened recently. The place was definitely on the up.
Charlie worked for the development company and, amongst
other things, he’d been responsible for erecting
Each of the poles was hinged at the base and a team of men had helped stand them upright. It had been Charlie’s task to make sure they were perfectly vertical. One pole out of line with the others would have looked silly. Three poles leaning in three different directions – even by a few inches - would have looked sillier still. It would also have put extra strain on the bolts holding them upright.
“If the poles were the same thickness all the way up,” Charlie said, “it would’ve been simple. I’d have stuck a spirit level up against each and that would’ve been that.” But these poles tapered from a wide base to a much narrower tip. A spirit level just wouldn’t work.
Charlie, who knows a lot of things, considered various scientific methods – but then decided a much more “low-tech” method would work best.
He put away his tools and stepped back. He closed one eye and lined a flag pole up with the corner of an old building across the street. By pointing this way and that he got his workmates to straighten the pole and hold it. Then Charlie shifted position, lined the flag pole up with the edge of another old building and did the fine tuning.
He repeated this with each of the three flag poles. Now a visitor can look at those poles from any angle and they will all be perfectly in line.
“But why use the old buildings?” I asked, especially when he worked for the company putting up the new buildings.
“The old ones have stood there for over a hundred years,” Charlie informed me, “and they look like they could stand another hundred easily. That’s because they were built perfectly perpendicular.” Then Charlie laughed. “But I bet those old masons never imagined their careful work would be used to straighten flag poles long after they were gone!”
‘And that, Charlie,’ I thought as I walked away, ‘is why we should always do our best, no matter what our job may be. Because we can never know, or imagine, when someone, somewhere, will depend on us having been straight and true!’
— ©
“Finding the extra in the ordinary.”
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