“Work. Good, honest work, whether it’s working with your hands to create an artwork, or manual labour, brings forth a sense of divinity at play. The only prerequisite is that whatever the work is, it is done sincerely and in congruence with the soul’s true origin and intent, then, without any effort, one experiences a flow, wherein one feels a part of the plan of the entire universe.”
~ Kamand Kojouri
I wish I walked around with a camera back in the day. I’d have loved to have caught the grace of a master traffic officer dancing the traffic along, the five AM “breakfasts” packed by loving wives back when trash men (were all men and) needed more than a donut to pick up their 8 tons.
When I asked Crescenta Valley Water District construction and backflow inspector Cory Whitman about the old pipe being replaced, he pulled out a gadget he called an “O.D. meter,” showed me precisely how pipe is measured (by its Outside Diameter) and added, with the humble pride of a worker who cares about his work, “It’s important to have the right tool to do the job.”
4-inch water pipe originally installed in La Crescenta neighborhood in 1947
“Every job from the heart is, ultimately, of equal value. The nurse injects the syringe; the writer slides the pen; the farmer plows the dirt; the comedian draws the laughter. Monetary income is the perfect deceiver of a man’s true worth.”
~ Criss Jami, Killosophy
Joyously, I carry one now.
Enjoy this small collection of a variety of workers and work I’ve had the pleasure to encounter.
Glendale firefighter
K-9 Officer Heinbechner with police dog Idol
At the LA Zoo, Vicky tends Billy’s feet with loving care
Moving earth
Fire Captain/Arson Investigator Jon Payne
Do not try this at home!
Dr. Rangan talks dangers of all ilk
Dr. Cyrus Rangan, Medical Director, California Poison Control System
A visit to Ken Calvert’s District Office
Building the float
Kids + music = magic
Mathew Schick, CVHS MusicDirector
Celebrating International Day of Acceptance at College View School
Teachers!
Working the March
A kind, sweet moment between workers at City Hall
Entertaining the waiting throng at the GUSD board meeting (Shoutout: School workers!)
“Tell me about what’s going on here…” (and local journalists!)
“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”
~ Eugene V. Debs
CVWD’s Cory Whitman at a community meeting: “They even brought cookies!”
“It’s important to have the right tool to do the job,” Whitman explains the use of O.D. tape.
“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.”
~ Greg Kincaid
