The existential charm of tree work is that your fate is entirely in your hands. The stakes are high—your life—but as with chess, there are no random events. All the information you need to survive is right in front of you, and if you don’t, it’s because you made a mistake. That is not true of driving or air travel or combat or even crossing the street on a walk light. Gravity, momentum, friction, and the dynamics of weight at the end of a line are all available to be understood and managed.
