A Student of Fire
“The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.”- Carl Jung
My story starts with fire. A passion was sparked inside of me as soon as I realized what my purpose was, or at least I received clarity about what direction I wanted to take my life (career wise initially).
A lot of my lessons in life come from my experience as a wildland firefighter. It has been my career, taught me about leadership, Awareness, and many human factors involved in decision making and performance.
My career has helped provide a decent living for my family and allowed me to have had all sorts of adventures and traveled to places most people only dream about going to. I’ve developed relationships with people from all walks of life, experienced significant incidents and problem solved with them. During this time I have had plenty of time to think, to learn, and grow as a leader with in the firefighting ranks, but also at home, and in my personal life.
It is through firefighting that I’ve been exposed to many teachers and learned to become a student of fire. It has given me a purpose and outlet to learn and grow as a human.
Becoming a Student of Fire
“If you choose to lead others you will leave a legacy. But that legacy will be determined by those that follow you. I suppose I would want my legacy to be that firefighters begin to realize the importance of being a student of fire and that I was able to help make that happen.” — Paul Gleason
The concept of being a “student of fire” comes from Paul Gleason. Paul is a legend in the Wildland Fire Community, responsible for influencing the safety protocols, changed how we look at risk and fire behavior analysis (bringing concepts from the climbing world, where he had made a significant impact to that community as well). (Read more about his influence in a different blog I wrote for the Wildland Fire Leadership Blog.)
This lesson about becoming a student of fire, for me, goes very deep. It is much more than just studying fire behavior or suppression tactics, or learning about historic fire events, accidents, and fatality fires.
For me this gets into the depth of what makes us human, it represents everything about learning, about leading, and about life. The lesson about being a student of fire to me means I am always learning, asking questions, striving to improve both in my profession and personal life.
Gleason would always encourage us to be students of fire. I’ve come to realize that the biggest teacher in my life has been Fire. It has taught me about leadership (in my career but more as a father and to my family), about my purpose, about everything in Life.
Its all about Survival
“In this game, fire represents Life. When your Fire is gone, so are you.”- Jeff Probst, Survivor
At about the same time as I discovered the profession of wildland fire fighting and fire management I also was exposed to the teachings of Tom Brown Jr. (My brother showed me how to make fire with a bow drill, and I was “hooked”).
Tom Brown Jr’s Tracker School, teaches various skills associated with “primitive” survival, tracking, stalking, nature awareness, and observation. The skill of making a fire is a foundational skill when it comes to survival. Fire was the thing that brought me to Tracker School and ultimately where I met Shanti, my soulmate and mother to our two boys.
Every human needs fire to survive. This I find fascinating. Most, if not all, living thing need some source of energy that ultimately leads to the sun, but humans have separated themselves from other animals by utilizing fire as a tool. It is ultimately the innovation of fire that made us human.
Fire is the one thing that connects us all. It was this tool or technology (of harnessing the energy of the sun in a way that benefited our species survival) that helped propel our evolution and status as a species of animal.
I need a place to put my story. If others can learn from my story, great.
It is more important for me to tell this story for my two sons, giving them the gift of knowing who I am. This might explain some things about themselves, and hopefully build a deeper connection between future generations down the line.
This blog is my way of “flushing out” a lot of the thoughts and stories that have accumulated inside me. For way to long I have held onto these and not been able to share them. Letting them build up inside (like a residue) that has hardened within me and created disconnection in my life. There is an aspect of healing and growth that comes from talking about our experiences and sharing lessons learned.
Through my writing I also hope to bring some attention to the profession of wildland firefighting and other Mission Critical Teams that are filled with people who give so much of themselves and often have challenges balancing work, their own personal development, and the needs of their family and other loved ones.
The best way to support the Wildland Fire Community is through the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
This is my Story. It is my gift.
