Heading Toward.
You're at the foot of a building so massive it blocks out the sun. The building is on fire. All around you are people screaming, crying, faces blackened with soot, and all of them are running away.
You know something about fire, you've seen what it does. You know something of the inferno behind that wall of glass. You can't kid yourself. You know what awaits you.
You adjust the straps on your oxygen tank, and head toward that building.
You know something about fire, you've seen what it does. You know something of the inferno behind that wall of glass. You can't kid yourself. You know what awaits you.
You adjust the straps on your oxygen tank, and head toward that building.
This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on
Tuesday, September 11, 2007.
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11:59 PM
Thanks for this. Those guys are real heroes.
7:23 AM
I think it's probably a writerly fascination I have with older, more experienced guys who do heroic things. You can imagine a 22 year old fireman or soldier convincing himself it won't happen to him. But a 35 or 40 year old man, fireman or soldier, knows damn well it can happen to him. And where the young guy can worry about missing out on all of life, the older guy is thinking about how hard it will be for his wife to tell their kids that Dad is dead. It can be almost an abstraction for the young guy. The old guy has far more detail to add to the picture. And still walks down that Baghdad alleyway or into that burning building.
6:56 PM
Nearly all the men in my wife's family are firefighters. Her uncles were firefighters; her elder brother was a firefighter; one of her nephews is a firefighter. It's not just that they're conscientious or that they're confident in a job they know how to do well. They do it with joy.