Earlier this month a few of us from Countryside flew to Munich, Germany. Every 3 years Munich hosts ‘Bauma”, which is the world’s largest construction exposition.
It is massive to say the least. Picture 18 buildings measuring 230ft x 500ft of indoor show space. With approximately twice that much of outdoor display space. Of course, the show sports every piece of heavy construction equipment imaginable to man. But if you are wondering if World of Concrete or Bauma is more applicable to the general concrete industry, I would have to say WOC. Bauma has a lot of concrete equipment, especially in heavy industrial forming, concrete production and of course pumps etc. But probably less stuff applicable to the everyday small contractor like most of us. Theres only so many tower cranes and drilling equipment and heavy attachments and spare hydraulic parts you can look at until your brain gets dizzy.
However, it is cool to see at least once, and southern Germany is beautiful, so if you get the chance fly to Bauma.
Speaking of flying, I hate flying. It just isn’t that much fun. But there is something about flying in airplanes that always intrigues me. It reminds me of chicken wings. I think flying in airplanes and eating chicken wings are two things that have a stark capacity for putting humanity on one level. In an airplane it doesn’t seem to matter who you are, you get a little seat roughly the width of your hips, you get a tiny little tray table, and a smartly dressed lady brings you little pack of pretzels and little plastic cup of apple juice or ginger ale. Wings have a similar effect. When you are eating chicken wings, everyone has sauce all over their fingers and face, and nobody seems to care.
And yet everywhere else in life there seems to be this competition to be better than the other guy. More prestige, more power, more money, better looking, smarter, whatever.
It reminds me of this parable found in the Bible. Jesus told the story of a man who was so deep in debt he couldn’t have repaid it in multiple lifetimes. Let’s just call it 10M dollars. After pleading to be released from the drowning debt, his creditor frankly forgave him all of it. Afterward the same man went and found a guy which owed him like a measly thousand dollars. The guy didn’t have it to pay, and had no idea how he would get it. He also asked to be released from his debt. But his creditor wouldn’t hear of it and incarcerated him and his family until he would pay. I have always wondered how he expected the guy to pay from prison.
But somehow, he forgot that he was just forgiven a debt far greater than what he was owed. How is it that we measure our perceived power against those that have less and forget how little we really are? I once did work on a project that was presumably owned by a billionaire. I never got paid. I felt humiliated and incensed, because I felt powerless. But that doesn’t give me any right to take advantage of the next guy.
Concrete contractors are sometimes considered a proud group of people. Maybe that’s an unfair statement, but we would have to admit there’s some truth to it. We work hard and know our stuff. We don’t like being told. But we should remember that power isn’t corelative to how much we have or don’t have. In the fable of the lion snared in the jungle, it was the lowly mouse who chewed through the rope to free him. Life isn’t a competition. It is about character. About being good stewards of what we been given and treating our fellowman with grace.
It’s good to remember the airplane, where we all have a little seat, a little tray, and a small pack of pretzels. And let’s not talk about eating wings.
