Harry (finally) lights the torch! ...and etches some zinc off too!

http://www.airbum.com/articles/ArticleZenWelding.html

Back in the 60's (which really isn't all that long ago for some of us), one of
the tomes that was required reading for any-one seeking spiritual enlightenment
and the right to wear a tie-dyed shirt was the book, Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance.

The basic premise of the book was that the spirit of the Buddha (don't get me
off on religion, I was raised Methodist and didn't understand THAT either),
could be invested in things mechanical, like a motorcycle, just as well as it
could in living, breathing organisms. The author, Robert Pirsig, viewed the
motorcycle as a mechanical- spiritual organism and the repair of it as a
religious experience.

Yeah, I know. What does this have to do with welding?

I had totally forgotten the book until the other day when I was chasing the
front edge of a weld bead down into the metal with my trusty Smith airline
torch. My world totally disappeared and was replaced by one the size of a pea
that glistened and flowed at the end of the fiery blue cone of my torch. As I
sat there, postively disappearing into the warmth and liquidity at the very
front edge of the tiny, molten puddle, I suddenly felt as if I, too, was having
a religious experience, albeit, a hot one, but still an experience. It was as if
the puddle was alive and I was trying to train it to do my command. It was no
longer steel and fire. It was something growing that was striving to unite two
pieces of inanimate steel into something with a soul that flies.