Jack and the Beanstalk

Today a tree fell. A tree fell in the yard.

Thirty years in a couple of hours.

The process was traceable in reflection and reminded me of writing. Writing for an audience of scholarly peers.

The thought of taking this huge tree down is one my wife and I have had for years. Too close to the house, too many berries and two split trunks. However, we've always talked ourselves out of planning and executing what seemed like a huge (dangerous) job. Chainsaws, permits, hiring a bonded tree surgeon, teams of people with hardhats and very cool hydraulic lifts. There were other priorities.

Then, this morning I looked at her and said, "You go to Best Buy and Lowes with the boys and I'll take down that tree" *. I called Kyle the handyman (the guy who would actually climb the tall tree, hold the chainsaw and pick up the biggest logs) hired him on a very fair daily rate and went to pick him up.

While he put oil in my electric chainsaw (the tan mini-van of the hardware world) and eyed the tree uncertainly, I studied how the monster hung over certain parts of the roof, which arms and limbs to chop first, which order they should be butchered. I calculated where to tie a rope and how to pull perfectly to transfer the heavy weight and bring the savage down.

Then we set up the ladders and executed. Me calling commands to the faithful Kyle, him high in the tree cutting with the saw. He came down and shortened the blown down branches, I carried them to the street side. Two hours of hard work....but not nearly as hard as I had imagined. The tree came down in a much easier fashion than I ever thought it would. And nothing got hurt.

In the end we raked up the yard and drank Gatorade. The yard and new sunshine felt great. I had slayed the zombie **. My wife was much impressed and we have firewood for the first few years of climate change.

Tonight's reflection is two-fold.

I think writing an article is going to be like taking down the tree (without Kyle). Just do it.

And, I was reminded how great it feels to take action...as I just did in my goal to write a little something in my blog each day.




*Wife's reply not included here
**Very hip reference.