Lol, yes! Chopping firework is so much harder than most people think it is. I'm thinking of an amusing series of answers to a Quora question that has been entertaining people recently.

Somebody wrote to ask if they could save a lot of money by converting their heating system to a wood burner. Since wood is "free."

Many of the answers were hilarious, because of course wood is usually not free unless you live on a wooded lot. But besides that, wood has to cure for a year or two after a tree has been cut down before you can even think about using it as firewood.

Then the trunk has to be cut with a chainsaw (unless you're a masochist and want to use a hand saw with a partner) and the segments hauled to your home.

Then those segments have to be split into four, usually with a steel wedge and a sledgehammer. Think it's just a matter of lifting the hammer up and hitting hard? Ha! The first time I tried it, it took me 20 minutes to do the whole job with just one segment.

My friend laughed with me when I realized how difficult it is. He took over, but even though he was used to it, the work was still strenuous and time-consuming. It was satisfying to be able to throw split wood into the wood burner in his cabin, though!

Part of the satisfaction came from the incredible effort that had to go into getting it all ready.

People have no idea!

Just like (and here comes my contrived hook 😂) people often have inaccurate ideas about gender roles in queer relationships. Just like they think chopping wood is easy, they presume that gay folks take on heteronormative roles in our relationships.

Who's the man? Who's the woman? If I had a penny for every time somebody's asked me that, I'd have ... Well, I'd have a few dollars.

But you know what? I'm the one who's supposedly effeminate, yet I spent a good part of that week at the cabin chopping wood. Because I enjoy doing hard things. And I loved the satisfaction of a crackling fire over a glass of wine at night with my very macho friend.

Neither one of us worried about what role we were supposed to play in terms of being a man or a woman.

Because we're queer, and we don't think like that. We do what we want without respect to societal expectations.

That's worth celebrating, just like this great story of yours. 🎉