Perception

You have all heard me preach, teach, grouse, etc. about perception but today I want to share a story that pretty much puts perception into the proper perspective, he said with a bit of alliteration and not a little onomatopoeia if you punch out the P’s like potato projectiles from a spud gun.

So, we had some violent, as in Jack at 50 plus pounds was in my lap, storms come through yesterday and last night. As in the aftermath of many storms trees come down and we have a stand of very susceptible oaks, mimosas, hickories and such along the stream that borders our lower drive and occasionally the storm gods pick one or more of these trees in sacrifice for not blowing over our house or garage. Thus it was this morning when Anne and I attempted to leave for visits to our more elderly parents, as in we are elderly but they are more elderly (98 and 90), the lower drive was blocked by the latest sacrificial oak and this one had as attendants the bright greens leaves of a mature and well deployed poison oak vine.

In the ordinary world of rural living this would pose only a minor delay. Chain saw here, chain saw there, vine is shaved off and the 14 inch trunk is cut into manageable logs that are moved off to the side of the drive to be collected later. However, my wife has always been concerned about chain saws and accidents and just when I have her about worn down and acknowledging a chain saw would, indeed, make managing 75 acres of trees a lot easier, some yahoo down the road cuts his femoral artery or has the saw kick back into his helmetless head or, well you know.

So with no chain saw I have two choices, call one of the local tree guys who will charge me a minimum of $100 dollars to cut up the tree, more if I want them to carry it away, OR attack the thing with my camp ax and limb loppers. I chose the latter and did manage to clear a path through to the county road but it would have been oh so much quicker with a chain saw and I’m sure a lot less painful tonight when I wake from having used much underused muscles to lift nine, seven and ten foot sections of a 14 inch trunk and pivot them into the ditch beside the drive.

What’s this got to do with perception? Well, the perspective provided my wife re chain saws means we don’t have one. Now I’ve tried, on more than one occasion, to remind her that in college I worked for the Forestry Department cutting trees, clearing brush and other such manly outdoor pursuits on the ten thousand acre, mostly forested, campus of the college. I used chain saws which were much more rudimentary than those available today and I never, well hardly ever, injured myself. Intellectually, she understands this but because this is a part of my life before her, she has no first hand knowledge of these doings and thus is reluctant to make a decision based on the myth of Tony the Woodsman. So, intellectually she accepts that I might know my way around a chainsaw but she has no physical evidence of same. Thus, her perception is that I also might not know my way around a chainsaw and perception determines action. I’ll let you know how this turns out, assuming I’m able to actually get out of bed tomorrow. Cheers.