message received

Well, the fire brigade's communications drill that I wrote up went off quite well today. We only had a few points of improvement to work on afterwards, and I think that the folks that got to participate reasonably enjoyed it. I wrote the drill in a way so that not only the communications were reviewed, but the whole flow of our personnel and the tactics we will use to do search, attack, ventilation, and exposures (SAVE) for a fire scene were presented in a pretty straight-forward manner. I think the next training we'll work on will be the information we need to give to the Trauma Team when we turn a patient over to them, and then also training for what our firefighters should do if they are trapped inside an emergency scene and have to issue a May-Day call.

This evening I watched "Full Metal Jacket" for the first time in probably 8 or 9 years. It was just as gut-wrenchingly intense as ever. For a movie made in the 1987it had some very apropos comments by the characters that struck pointed chords given the conflicts in which our country is currently engaged. I guess the whole nature of war, violence, and the motivations people find to keep relatively sane-or not so sane-in such a time and place of madness don't change that much with the years. Mortality is mortality. There is no escaping it, and the same atavistic fears about what is beyond death's veil that gripped our ancestors in ages past still grip us, despite all the "advancements" and distractions our modern culture provides. It's not that we can hope to escape this end, but rather it is the way in which we meet it and when, which are the real crux of the issue. We still fear the darkness waiting outside the flickering light of our small fire.

I think I am exceptionally lucky to be in a place where there is no war, where I have plenty to eat and clean water to drink, where I'm not threatened by those around me, where I have rights that are observed and protected, and where the only real violence that can be visited upon me is that from the natural environment outside our few warm little structures that protect us from the elements.

Peace to you all.