Page 70 - Green Builder May-June 2020 Issue

FROM THE TAILGATE By Ron Jones

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

Follow the Light

BY RON JONES
ATELY I HAVE BEEN HEARING a lot of
speculation around how things will shape
up when we turn the corner on the current
crisis and move on to the next version of
L whatever life and business are going to look
like. The most optimistic among us suggest that we’ll
grasp the lessons we’ve learned and take a step up to a
more responsible, more balanced approach in our work
and in our daily activities; that we’ll find something
worthwhile to hold onto and carry forward.
Others are less hopeful, perhaps even cynical,
because experience has repeatedly shown us that once
an immediate threat or challenge has been put to rest
the most common human response is to just want
things to return to the way they were before, as quickly
and painlessly as possible. We’ve watched it happen
following natural and manmade disasters, armed con-
flicts, economic implosions, and, yes, pandemics.
It was the summer of 1984 (you can do the arithme-
tic if you feel the urge) and we were framing houses
for a production builder out of California. We were
definitely the smallest, slowest crew in the subdivision
and could never really hope to make a good living at
production framing. But we were highly meticulous
and reliable, so the company used us to build their new
models that summer so they could iron out the kinks
before offering them to buyers.
Late on a Friday afternoon another framing contractor pulled up “I’d just keep framing houses until it was all gone and then find
in front of our site just as we were closing down for the day and another place to start over again.” We all shared a laugh but later the
offered to give me several buckets of free joist hangers and other deeper message of his words began to sink in.
familiar hardware that he had no further use for. He explained that He wasn’t simply expressing his passion for the work that he loved
he was moving on from the current situation because, once again, doing. In a larger sense he was sharing that no matter how many
he was having to make a choice this week between paying his crew, “last” Fridays he had to go through, he wasn’t interested in changing
the insurance premium or the tax man. how he went about conducting his business. As long as he could find
I accepted his offer, and we took the opportunity to discuss the work doing what he enjoyed the most, he was willing to endure the
state of the industry and the ups and downs that we all had to ride pain, no matter how many times the outcome repeated itself.
through as we looked for ways to be successful and have some stabil- The lesson here is that, like the departing framer, we are all going
ity in such a crazy and frustrating line of work. Somebody suggested to be faced with choices once we emerge from this particularly
that we just needed 1 million dollars and we wouldn’t have to worry dark and uncertain time. In spite of these dire circumstances, we
about it anymore. Note that this was at a time when a million was have been given an opportunity to step back, take a deep breath
still a big number. and a hard look at ourselves, and decide if we only want to get
We took turns speculating what each of us would do with the back to the way things were before, or maybe, just maybe, aspire
money and when it was the other framer’s turn to respond he said, to something better. GB

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