Waiting on the rampture . . .

Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.

Sorry about the week-long interruption. It is hard to believe I walked you out to the end of the unfinished wheel chair ramp and left you for so long. Fortunately the ramp did not take nearly so long to finish as this blog story. A few of the Ramp It Up guys were successful with their aiming and figuring, created a 45 or so degree turn in the ramp toward a higher elevation and finished up. Believe me it was not that simple nor that quick. The ramp is beautiful, and it works.

At the point we realized we had a problem, that the ramp would be considerably longer than we thought it would be if we continued with our original plan, we stopped and considered our possibilities. We did not want to stop and think too long, as our new friends who were anticipating the completion of the ramp were patiently encouraging us as they visited with us from the porch. During this process it occurred to me that the reason surgeons have us asleep during surgery is not because it is necessary for our health. It is because that most often the process of construction or repair or even creativity is far messier than the final product. No one would have surgery if we had to watch it all. And I began to wonder if anyone else would want a wheelchair ramp. While our jokes and singing did provide somewhat of a numbing affect, the process was still right there in front of our new friends. Their confidence never waned. Or at least they were kind enough not to let it show.

The ideas considered during the intense period of aiming and figuring produced several suggestions. For those of you not experienced in these matters, aiming and figuring is a technical construction term for that period of time that elapses between the discovery of a construction challenge and the commencement of work on the chosen solution to that problem. Aiming and figuring involves keeping one's eyes focused on the site of the problem for long periods of time, as if maybe the problem will somehow change on its own. The posture of the aimers and figurers changes, much like an intense golfer lining up a putt. Standing, hunkering, bending over with hands on thighs, turning one's back on the project and taking a few steps away, the aimer and figurer seeks physical changes in perspective in search of the right course to take. I suspect surgeons do the same while we are asleep.

Several propositions were thrown into the market place of ideas as we stood in the darkening evening. Perhaps we should simply continue with our original plan and build a much longer ramp that would end close to the street. If we turned ninety degrees to the right the ramp would be heading back into a higher elevation in the middle of the yard, requiring only a short section of ramp to finish. If we turned ninety degrees to the left there was very little slope, so the ramp would be longer than the turn to the right, but still not as long as continuing straight, and the landing area was not nearly as soft. All choices had to be considered in light of accessibility from the parking area and preservation of the lovely yard in front of the house.

For aiming and figuring to be effective, it is necessary that the participants advocate their positions strongly in the beginning. I, for instance, initially advocated the ninety degree right turn into the higher elevation of the yard. All of the positions were considered and promoted and critiqued. It is not a time to be reticent. All possibilities deserved proper and zealous representation so that the best could come to light, which was getting a bit more difficult since by that time there was no more natural light to assist us.

Amazingly, the dialectic process of group aiming and figuring once again provided the solution, which was the 45 degree turn to the right. A compromise of the original ideas, it maximized the positives and minimized the negatives. A bit unorthodox, the plan presented some challenges, but our course was set, and the project was finished, the posts were set in concrete, and the ramp was attached to the porch.

The final product is beautiful. And most importantly, it worked.

Our group of ramp builders is made up of different personalities and construction skill levels. But all voices were heard. No one person had thought of every important consideration on how to finish the ramp. But together, we ended up with the best solution.

When our problem first presented itself we were tempted to consider cheating on the slope to solve the problem. The slope of a wheelchair ramp is supposed to be no more than one inch of rise for every foot of length. An easy solution would have been to simply make the ramp a bit steeper. That would have shortened the ramp considerably and we could have finished much quicker.

But the sole purpose of a wheelchair ramp is, after all, to allow independent access for a person who cannot have it otherwise. A ramp with a steeper slope would have been much easier to complete and people passing by on the street would have looked at it and thought, "my what a beautiful ramp."

But if it were built too steep for our new friends to pull the wheelchair up the ramp, it would be worthless. Worse than worthless, it would be a monument to our group's lack of understanding and compassion for our new friend's situation. While it may have made us who never have to use the ramp feel good about what we had constructed, in reality it would have been better had it not been built at all.

So that's the story of the ramp. And much more, I think.

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