I Love Construction Because

It is an intimate way to serve people, to make their homes better
that intimacy always leads to an intense trust
and repeat business for probably a lifetime

The economic conditions are clear
at a minimum I will give myself a ten dollar raise every year
but what's more likely is
I will build assets to rent or sell and never need to work for money again

My hands are never soft

A long day feels pretty great
and the short days are whenever I want them to be

One day it's forcing a 200 pound beam into place
the other day it's gently stroking cabinets with an expensive soft bristled brush
to make sure there are no brush marks on the work

There are leads upon leads
we don't need debt or any invasive interactions with the governments
there's the building departments
but we understand each other
somebody has to shore this shit up
the City understands that

You know how they say America's infrastructure is failing?
That's true in most of our housing stock too.
There was a generation that built everything
a generation that took it for granted and built as cheap as possible
and the current generation that is running out of people to call
to do anything right and especially anything enduring and beautiful
I love helping that problem a tiny bit and making a good living on it

My body will fail way later this way.
I've seen the 60 year old contractors that are still doing their own work
if they weren't alcoholics or chain smokers,
they end up real badass
sinewy with a childlike unbroken spirit
with lots of good humor and lots of money
with great houses and a simple daily life and good women

In a little over one year I've had clients give me
a tiny tequila bottle collection
homemade cookies
lot's of coffee
cream cheese danishes
Gatorade and ice water
I've been offered massive pieces of art
and tiny pieces of porcelain
lumber, marijuana
gin and tonics
and several books
I've never done any work
where I was so appreciated by a client.

It beats that coffeehouse shit to a pulp
where I'd run a thousand moving parts to squeeze out
six thousand dollars for me and four thousand for the government
every month
I was taxed on taxes of taxes
had to deal with the twenty-something year old generation
whatever their name is
the ones that are well positioned to lose the last bits of the republic
ready to be conquered by addiction, authority, convenience, opulence, hedonism
they complained about existing
incessantly
but that crap stroked my ego
like I was a puppy getting petted
creating communal spaces like that is something I truly love
because I do love many different types of people
because it was my dream for some reason
kind of a tertiary dream, but a dream nonetheless
a thing I accomplished a few times
sort of

I love feeling important to somebody or something, a team or a cause
like making really good coffee was important because it was something to share
like belief
but obviously it barely matters
it only is allowed to matter because of the spoils and leisure of empire
it's a great way to not feel like a man
in the ancestral sense
in the bottom of the gut way
because deep deep inside you know
that this has to be given some deeper meaning to have any meaning at all
Otherwise all we're doing is imperialism
buying two dollar pounds of coffee from farmers to sell for seventeen
but that's the market
just following the free market.

But shelter isn't like that.
taking timber and fixing a house
laying tile, building a shower
digging a hole and fixing a water line
so the house has water
patching a roof so it doesn't leak on children
gutting a kitchen and rebuilding it to be beautiful again
flexing this body
using it up for what it was evolved for
providing for the village
the things that the village needs
posts and beams
the vertical and horizontal
temples and hovels
ashes to ashes
dust to dust