Today I've been cutting up the downed trees and limbs from the ice storm and hauling them out of the woods with the tractor. It is surprising that so many seek the life of ease when the experience of hard work can be so rewarding. I realize there are strange notions afoot. For instance, Socrates believed that physical labor should only be done by slaves. He wasn't the first to come up with that absurd notion, denigrating the physical experience of real work and the character of those who perform it, but he parroted it widely, even into the universities of today. But working out with real wood, even when it is to become firewood and not fine furnishings is better than the gym. It leaves you with a sense of accomplishment and order that you won't find on the treadmill.
Today I had to cut down what remained of a white oak, 18" in diameter. The top split away during the storm. It was nice to have the skill necessary to fell the tree safely and have it land within inches of where I planned. These are the kinds of things that don't happen in the office, even in the best of weeks. The point is, we have become so cerebral in our perceptions of self, that we have nearly incapacitated the sense of self that arises in tangible, physical accomplishment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hope you find some time to build a Chester Cornett styled Mountain chair with that white Oak
ReplyDeleteJoe
Doug-
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree on the sanctity of physical work, which I consider to be a form of meditation. Working on firewood, in particular, has a very special meaning for me. My grandfather worked right alongside my Dad and my brothers on his farm (into his 80s) cutting up "widow makers" and the tops left over from various logging harvests. I love to split wood with an axe and wedges. It is a sort of puzzle on persistence that I try to "crack" with an imagined dead-eye aim and focused balance. Ed B