Log0031 | Lumberjack

“Beautiful!” The lumberjack yelled in his heavily accented English as he threw both hands to the sky. Several other ‘jacks yahooo-ed as the top of the neighbor’s massive dead pine crashed to the ground. A little too close to the cabin, garage and two gas tanks for comfort, but his thrill in precision seemed to be leveraged through risk.

Watching us watch him, he walked over, chainsaw in hand.
“You have any trees you want me to cut down?”
His voice loaded with excitement.
Unfortunately for him, all of ours were still green and living.

But as I watched him I thought: this was what maximum job satisfaction looked like. He’d unlocked level 10 of 10. No one even seemed to be paying the man. Neither us, nor the neighbors. We figured the utility covered the bill to protect their lines, and he just loved his craft; the art of felling.