Squaring a Log
This past weekend was the Springs Folk Festival. It's a good time with lots of crafts and ole timey things like sauerkraut, apple butter being cooked over an open fire, and bread baked in a wood fired oven.
Our church youth group runs a burger, brats and fries booth and so I was there helping them. I got to be the frier guy on Friday. Maybe that's why it's called Friday. Who ever knew? It's always a fun time with everyone bustling around trying to keep up with the nonstop line of people. And what could be better than hearing that loud sizzle of freshly cut potatoes hitting the hot grease on a cold day!
There really wasn't much time to enjoy the festival but that wasn't what I was there for anyways. Off to my left was a guy who was squaring a log with a broadax. I was able to watch him on and off all day, and that was nice. He had a good sized log that was maybe 18" inches across the butt and had a pretty good taper to it. He would chop into the log with a regular ax and then square the sides with a broadax. The top he chipped away with an adz, a hoe shaped tool with a sharp edge. He started at ten and by five he had a beautiful 12" square log. He probably could have produced it faster had he not been answering questions and explaining the trade to spectators. Either way it was a slow process. I'm sure that even back in the day it was a slow process. Could you imagine how long it would take to build a house or a barn? Some people liked the slower pace of life and some didn't. And most people thought that faster was better. So somebody invented a saw mill. Not everyone could afford a saw mill, so the people started getting lumber in exchange for something that they could produce such as eggs and potatoes. But the guys running the mill could only eat so many eggs and potatoes and so they started trading their lumber for money.
I'm not knocking the money system. I think it's a great system.
Here's where the problem is. Some people ended up in factories doing things they hated so that they could buy the lumber.
Things haven't changed a whole lot, we just think that they have.
Nowadays a house can be built quickly. It just comes with a 20 or 30 year mortgage. And so we spend a big portion of our lives working for the same thing a frontiersman did back in his time. Like it or not, that's the way it is. Somewhere there's this unwritten law that pretty much says that you'll get what you work for. Now I'm a big believer in gifts and blessings and love it when something comes my way. But for the most part, we get what we work for. Maybe the biggest blessing is finding joy in our work. If you can spend the majority of your life doing what you love and what you were made for and trading that for the things you need, that is truly a blessing!
Finding that perfect fit isn't always easy. It's a little bit like squaring a log. It takes a lot of time.
And if you enjoy what you are doing but the paycheck feels a little thin, just remember, faster isn't always better.
Feeling content almost always is!
