Jan 31, 2009
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight, though I toyed with the idea of running home to get my camera. Too far. I also considered texting my neighbor to see if she was coming to the pool, bring the camera, but I had left without the phone. There is no way to describe the sight in a manner that will truly describe the incident. I bring my camera everywhere, but not today. Of course.
I planned to develop a sketch but last time I tried the bread scene, it was less than successful. I will create a drawing, but it won’t lend itself to the inconceivability of a photo.
Last weekend, downtown, I saw a tree being cut down. That one was farther away but just as spectacular. There is a method here that would make any OSHA inspector’s blood run cold. Of course, it involves bare feet. Many men work in bare feet here. It is one of the oddities you quickly get used to. I will never get used to the sight of a tree being cut down, however.
At the pool today, we saw it. Over the tops of the building, we could see a man had climbed the tree and then pulled up a chainsaw with a rope. He had bare feet and no shirt. By the time we arrived, the large leafy parts of the tree had already come down. He was left only to cut the stumpy branches and then the trunk, piece by piece.
A rope was visible but it’s not clear that he was attached to it. It wouldn’t have provided much protection in any case. I watched his silhouette with terror and amazement. I felt like a child at the circus. But things go wrong at the circus and several times I simply had to turn away for fear of the outcome. Who needs cable with this kind of entertainment? At one point he had climbed out onto a short stump and began to cut through the little that was left in front of him. Everything he cut landed to the ground with a violent thud. To my horror, he then leaned down and stretched across to cut a stump projecting from the tree at a diagonal, beneath and behind him.
I had to keep reminding myself how high he was. Higher than the building. Higher than several other small palm trees surrounding the pool. As he cut part of the trunk in front of him, the rope was pulled taut on the ground. Someone was down there pulling the trunk so that it would fall in that direction. I couldn’t decide who needed the prayers most, the one on the ground or the one in the air. I kept watching the man cutting the tree, thinking if he lost his balance just a bit and tried to steady himself, the most natural place to grab would be the piece of trunk that he was cutting. When that piece of trunk fell away, there would be nothing in front of him but sky. I really couldn’t wrap my mind around the way he was sitting in the crook of that tree, straddling the V where the trunk and a piece of branch separated, cutting directly in front of himself, cutting towards his thigh.
Each piece of tree that tumbled to the earth was a piece of the ladder he had used to get to his current position. I didn’t stay to see how he got down.
