Sports are not for me – in fact, I’ve been known to say that I have only two sports: walking and splitting wood. I love to split wood! That is the axe my dear husband gave me for my birthday, and this weekend I was thrilled to get to try it.
As I was splitting wood, it occurred to me that there are many parallels between splitting wood with an axe and drawing with a pencil. Look at these:
1. Neither require electricity.
2. Both require a sharp edge – blade or point.
3. For best results, start with the large and move to the small.
4. They both make wood bits – shavings from the sharpener or splinters from the axe.
5. Lots of strokes are required for results.
6. One has to start with good stuff to get decent results – great scenes make great drawings, and good clean-grained wood makes good shaped pieces.
7. Both require paying close attention to what one is doing, unless one doesn’t mind wasting time and energy.
8. The terms “hard” and “soft” are always being flung around, both with wood and with pencils.
9. Cedar makes the best pencils and also the best-splitting wood.
I’m sure there are more parallels; can you think of any?
