A logger delivered firewood to our neighbor this morning. It makes my back hurt just to look at it.
In Upper Turkeyfoot, most of us burn a little firewood in heating season, heating season being September to June. Some of us burn a lot.
Not too many years ago we passed the self-reliant stage where firewood is concerned. We used to fell and drag and cut and split and stack. Then we just cut and split. Then just split. Now we only stack, and consider it a wise use of dwindling resources. By buying our wood cut to length and split, we have more energy to wrestle with the really important issues like our aesthetic and the condition of American poetry in the 21st Century.
Our neighbor, too, has reached a certain stage of contemplation. And he is wise enough to know he can count on the support of younger men. Come to think of it, he is wiser than me. While I am still stacking, he has advanced to supervision.
Thoreau wrote that firewood warmed him twice, once when he cut it, and once when he burned it. We have decided once is enough.
Cooperation and division of labor are fundamental to warmth.
copyright 2010 J. O'Brien, all rights reserved
