So I Married The Woodcutter

The Woodcutter makes an appearance in several tales, including Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and even his own tale, which has been told and retold under several different titles, but which we know as The Three Wishes. Although he may not be the main character in all these tales, he certainly has become the leading man in my fairy tale. My husband loves to collect firewood. He spies fallen trees like an owl spies a field mouse. Firewood is his passion, right up there with homebrew. We heat our house exclusively with our wood stove, and we have never paid a dime for our firewood. This time of year, when it is so very cold, I am especially grateful for the cords and cords of firewood stacked in our back yard. And for a husband who considers it a very good weekend when a major storm blows through town and knocks over trees which he can cut into rounds and hall home in his truck.

The downside of being the woodcutter is that, unlike other fairy tale characters, he is neither immortal or invincible. He may be manly, but he is merely a man, susceptible to the woes that befall us all. The woodcutter's back has yelled "timber" and knocked him to the ground. Literally, on the ground, flat on his back, suffering from degenerative disc disease, which tends to flare up every January. Fortunately, the woodcutter will mend. He won't have to send his children out to the woods to fend for themselves, and in no time he will be able to rescue grandma from the wolf and get back to splitting firewood.

In the meantime, hopefully this will cheer him up.

I *heart* the woodcutter.