How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer, and Bolder

Book excerpt: A memoir from a retired firefighter about firefighting, rescue calls and life around the firehouse. It's not all about fire - that's lesson number one. No,it's a collection of things: assisting an injured person at three o'clock in the morning, calming a child in a traumatic situation, saving the belongings of a family from the ravages of a fire, seeing people in every heartbreaking situation imaginable and trying to help them, while not losing yourself in the process.And it's about the insanity found in the firehouse - to the author it's the Cracker Factory - and the politics and pettiness that try unsuccessfully to steal the joy from the job. The book doesn't dwell on the nuts and bolts of firefighting, as much as it documents the human side of the job.