Even I thought this was funny

Les Stroud has advised me and thousands of others on the safest way to break a piece of wood. I watched, listened and understood, logically, the reasons for the technique. It involves levering a branch between two fixed points and bending it until it breaks. It's wiser and safer than other methods for various reasons. Not the least of those reasons is the surprising amount of energy built up just before the branch breaks. When you're bending the branch in your hands, applying force just with your arms and wrists, the release of that force can be unpredictable.

Like I said, I understood, intellectually, the wisdom of this advice. At work yesterday, I came to understand it in a more pragmatic way.

Twisting and bending a thumb-thick branch in my hands (for reasons uninteresting for the purposes of this blog), I brought the stick to its breaking point, and simultaneously pictured Les Stroud in my mind, cracking a limb between two trees. The next moment, the stick snapped, releasing its collected force at its outer ends. One of those ends was unwittingly and unerringly aimed with brutal mathematical precision at the head of my innocent, unsuspecting dick.

With an audible thwack, I learned with a deeper, pragmatic and intensely memorable
appreciation the lesson which I had already been aware. The sensation of pain was sharp and immediate, and still, I laughed out loud. God thinks I'm hilarious.

I won't soon forget this learning experience. I share it with you now as Les shared it with me, and I hope you don't have to learn the hard way.