Most weeks, my work mainly involves pushing electrons around. I sit at a computer and do stuff. Recently, there have been requests for short training videos for clients to use with their teams. I write scripts, edit scripts and record videos. Other weeks, I prepare presentations, which involves lots of PowerPoint editing, lots of rehearsing content, lots of time online and lots of buying tickets. It’s all sedentary stuff - me plus a keyboard, plus a computer, plus a screen, pushing electrons.
Last Saturday, though, was different. I was in Clark County at my father’s property near Grove Hill. I climbed on a tractor shortly after 7:30am. It’s a small John Deere with a scoop on the front and a mower on the back. I didn’t climb off until well after 2pm. For about seven hours I mowed and pushed downed trees out of roads and fields. I was bitten by every biting insect in North America. My arms and neck got burned. My work pants smelled of diesel fuel. I added a couple more tears to my already torn work T-shirt. My socks balled up inside my boots, and my back hurt from lifting 50 lb. bags of wheat. When I washed my hands, the white sink turned brown with dirt and dust that had stuck to my sweaty arms. A mystery bruise was beginning to ache and turn purple on my shoulder. I sat down in my father’s small camp, told him I’m just going to close my eyes for a second and fell solidly asleep, and I was deeply, deeply happy.
Pushing electrons is what I’ve chosen to do for a living. At the end of every day, I typically leave my office with my checklist complete. I make a large one on Monday, add a little bit to it each day, cross some stuff off and by Friday I have largely worked through it, but I do not get the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of my work. At the end of the bricklayer’s workday, he can step back and see the progress he’s made. He started there in the morning and is now finishing here. His progress is easy to see. Pushing electrons doesn’t offer the same satisfaction, but that was not the case last Saturday. Fields and roads were mown. Trees were pushed away. Progress was obvious, and it felt good and tiring. The soreness was welcome, and the nap on the couch was earned.
Fall means it’s time to cut firewood. It’s the wood we’ll use next fall, giving it a year to season and dry on the rack. I love cutting firewood. The feel of the chainsaw, going from tree to log, to cut wood pieces, to split pieces and the stack slowly growing in front of me, my hands rough and my back aching. Later, a cold beer and college football, and the sleep that night is an earned slumber.
I live a largely sedentary life. I go to work and sit, then on to a meeting and sit, then on to the next place and sit. A day seeing the progress of my work is needed every now and then. Strangely, the bruises and the soreness and the exhaustion make me feel alive.
I’m Cam Marston, just trying to keep it real.
