wood chopping

"And here it now seems obvious to me that I have omitted all mention of the desperado and the melancholic, not to mention the psychopath, representing the darker sides of the human psyche, impossible to ignore in any serious consideration of the art of chopping wood -- we are, after all, talking about smashing something into pieces. With all the physical power at one's disposal, using a sharpened cutting edge -- for thousands of years the most efficient battlefield weapon of them all. Modern life doesn't offer many opportunities to compare with this, to engage in a serious act of violence one day and enjoy the fruits of it the next, and all without doing anyone any harm. Am I a part-time psychopath?" - Lars Mytting, Norwegian Wood
Hmm. Am I a part-time psychopath? I do that yawning thing, you know. That thing where I yawn when someone else yawns even if I have no intention of sleeping anytime soon. I heard psychopaths don't do that. But here's the thing: I've starting drinking black coffee which I know that some think of as psychopathic.

So am I a part-time pyschopath?

While many, many things sprawl across my mind as I'm chopping wood, the question of whether I am a psychopath never has until I started reading Mytting's book. I've only got the sample pages because I'm waiting for the book to be available at my library so right now all I've had are some teasers about psychopaths and axes.

It seems everyone is successfully writing books these days (except me) and a book about wood-chopping isn't nearly as mundane as it seems.Granted chopping wood to sustain heat through the winter is an entirely different endeavor than the one I take part in once week out on our woodland property. My wood chopping is for recreational purposes. I can't even say it is for exercise and strength-building because it never works for me in that way it does for my man (he'll spend a weekend hauling and chopping wood and suddenly he's all trim and fit). But it is character building. And very satisfying.