How a Chainsaw Made Me a Better Man
Awarding “Man Points” for stereotypically masculine actions is misleading and can be damaging. But I love how that chainsaw helped me grow.
I have always admired my grandfather for his ability with his hands. Growing up I watched him fix cars, do carpentry, grow his own vegetables, sculpt, and mix and lay cement. Even at 80 years old he still walks the hills near our home. Over the course of his life, he has been a soldier, a lorry driver, a taxi driver and a mechanic. He is ceaselessly practical and while I fundamentally disagree with his political views I admire him more than anyone else I know.
For a long time he struck me as what society wanted a man to be like: physically strong and good with his hands. Having dreaded rugby at school and not knowing which way up to hold a drill, I felt like society would judge me to be a fairly poor excuse for a man.
So, when I graduated and got a job as a nature reserve warden, part of my excitement was at the possibility of earning some man points (and of taking a break from the cerebral world of academia I had spent the last four years inhabiting).
For over two years I learned how to mend fences, how to manage sluice gates to…
