Level of Fortune

by John Cannizzo

Two students crouch over the shallow excavation and stare at the carpenter's level.

“This is OK," one says. The other is not sure.

They are building a small summer house. We built a lot of garden structures this summer.

In the morning when he arrives one of the students switches on a radio to his favorite station. It is distracting and the work requires concentration. The other student is quiet, furtive, shy. When we rest he rolls a cigarette. There is something calculating behind his watery grey eyes. If I attempted to paint them as pure introvert and a pure extravert I would be guilty of a pious fraud. Everyone is both.

Leveling is different from design. Your design may be better than mine. But levelness is the same for all. The word “Level" has many related meanings. Today we level ground to build a strong foundation. Standing on a level floor you feel the straightness derived from the horizon: where the sea meets the sky. It is totally objective. Different from design yet much design rests on it.

What level am I on? What have I achieved? You are either on a level or you are on your way up or down from one. On the way you are on a grade, not a level. Someone said that in order to change ourselves we must a least be at level 1, such as a person that pays their rent, feeds their kids, goes to work. To have this is already to have a lot.

In our ears is an instrument that is a tiny level. Our species possesses a particular balance that allows us to go on two legs. Our ability to balance ourselves on a variety of grades as well as to balance objects with our hands is unique. A violinist, juggler or gymnast can perform feats of balance that find no correspondence in the balance of the most sure footed animals.

I thought the leveling project would appeal to the more extraverted person less likely to look within himself and more likely to be involved with the objects of his surrounding. But he is less interested than the other student that filters the objective world of perception through his psyche first. His subjective approach to life is resignedly acquainted with tyrannical objectivity.

**All photos courtesy of John Cannizzo

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The foundations are often hidden but it is worth the effort to get it level if you want the structure to be straight, true, strong.

We use big pieces of stone to steady the posts once they are in the proper location. After that we pour concrete though the Japanese builders say that clay is better than cement which they feel can do as much harm as good due to its powerful base ph. Clay is neutral.

Maintaining a level stance on a ladder while balancing a tool in your hand is the kind of wonder that we take for granted. The ability to interact with the world of phenomenon in a variety of complex situations is the unique feature of humanness.

The summer house is built out of cedar which is in fact Juniperus virginiana. There are no cedars native to the new world. The cedars which the bible tells us that Solomon used to build his temple are Cedrus libani. Its pungent wood defies insects and rot not by being strong and hard like oak. Quite to the contrary. It is soft and light and splits easily which is why the native Americans and after them American ship builders loved the wood. Cedar derives its special properties from the oil that impregnates its cellulose. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon. PSALM 92:12

With this small house and its carefully considered proportions we had the gratification of building a structure within which everyone that entered it encountered the same emotions of serenity, peacefulness and well being. The sweet smell of the freshly cut cedar acted like a medicine. It was impossible to have a headache anywhere near the area and the mosquitoes were strangely absent.