[Seasons: Autumn IX]
On one hand, wood heat is a luxury. It requires wealth because the land from which the wood comes is not free, access to that land not universal, and the means to process the fuel from that land expensive. The physical strength to access, chop, split, and store the wood requires a “wealth” of bodily strength, too. Given that much of the world lives in within urban development, the presence of trees, let alone excess trees to burn, is also consequence of privilege.
On the other hand, wood heat is hard work and profoundly basic. In our case, it’s a willful abandoning of modern luxury (central heat), acceptance of a physical challenge, and an embrace (discipline?) of inconvenience. It also connects us more deeply to the seasons, the soil, the air and weather, the forest, and the fauna. Wood heat is literally recycled sun and carbon, which are the most basic of elements, accessible to anyone willing to slow down and notice.
I will not be able to untangle or solve this paradox. Wood heat is a privilege and a challenge, a luxury and a discipline. The best I can do is hold them together, humbly, reverently, and with gratitude.
Wood heat is a metaphor for all tension in life. Anytime we say, “Yeah, but” we miss the holiness of the tension. The more I hold them together and say “Both, and” I more richly experience their beauty and truth.
