When I grow up I want to be

People are always asking children what they want to be when they grow up. Children don't even know what grown up means so how are they supposed to even answer this question? And then we laugh when they say something sincere and cute like 'superman.' As a child I had my stock answer for this adults query, "a teacher and a children's writer" I would say and the discussion would end abruptly. Even now I am impressed at the decisiveness of my young self. And really not too bad a response that I could even still be happy doing.  Nonetheless, despite my precociousness as a child, I propose we stop asking young children what they want to be and start asking adults instead.  It has been a while since someone asked me what I want to be when I grow up and after this past weekend I think I could have a more creative response.

 

When I saw the ad for the national tree climbing competition I got excited. And then I got the children really excited. And so it was with much excitement and anticipation that we got into a car Saturday afternoon to join the hordes of tree climbing fans. Except for some reason the parking lot at the park was half full and the event was colonized by only a small group of arborists and family. This is tree climbing!! What could be more important than watching this? And the event was just as exciting as we anticipated. We watched arborists perform tree rescues. Jakob doesn't understand why there are unconscious people to be saved from branches but it was good to know that there are so many qualified individuals out there who could easily save me if I passed out on a 30 foot high branch. And even better was the speed climbing competition where climbers were fork lifted to the top of a tree and had to swing and leap about as fast as possible ringing five bells hidden in the far branches. This was better than watching ballet. The climbers throw a rope between a high fork in the tree and pull it down so it forms a loop. Then they use their vast array of carabiners and highly coveted mystery instruments to magically climb up the rope to a branch. They combine leaping from branch to branch with giving themselves more or less slack to get where they want. They have knight like sheaths with saws inside that they can easily zip out to tend to their tree or in this case ring a bell. It looked so incredibly fun and graceful - like a solo arboreal fencing match. Except, then a less skilled contestant would come up and we would realize as we cringed at their falls, misses and painful bangs into trunks that it must be difficult. 

 

And I left the competition thinking "Why didn't I become an arborist?" Why did no one tell me about this job which involves nature, conservation, coordination, cunning, and apparently a lot of beer drinking?

 

We left the competition early to go see a bed frame (our new place has no beds). The man selling us the bed coincidentally is an arborist and recognized us from the competition. And so I eagerly got to ask all my questions about his job. And he was so happy we were into tree climbing. And I was so happy he was eager to tell me all about it. He was so enthusiastic and healthy looking and there was tree carnage strewn all over his lawn, and he beamed about his profession. And I was a bit envious of this man who gets to eat chocolate sprinkles for breakfast (he's Dutch) and climbs trees all day. And so I want to go back in time and let everyone know that actually I want to be an arborist. Or even better maybe I will just go out and learn to be a tree whisperer now. 

 

This man can save you if you pass out on a branch

Mesmerized

This judge sat here comfortably for hours

I never figured out why they had to climb up this side to save the person on that side