Running With Scissors...

...Playing with knives

His request came out of nowhere.

We were killing time at his old brother's soccer practice screwing around in the woods by the soccer fields.

He picked up a stick and began chopping at the trunk of a small tree.

"I'm going to cut this tree down," he said, determination rolling off his tongue like white foam on a big wave. I was about to give him my lecture on pantheism but I reminded myself he is merely a boy of six and they'll be time for those conversations later. Besides, he was going to get nowhere with the blunt end of the stick he was wielding.

"I need to sharpen this," he said to me and then began to rub it on the bark of a fallen tree. "Um, I'm not sure that's going to work for you dude," I said.

"Yer right," he said in agreement.

"I wish I had a pocket knife," he said.

"Wait, don't you have one in your truck?" he asked.

"I do," I said. Recalling the fact that a ChapStick-sized Swiss Army knife has lived in the right cup holder with a gaggle of coins as family for many, many years.

"Let's go get it," he said and made a beeline to the truck.

When we got there, I dug it out of the cup holder and began another lecture...

"Here's the deal," I said, "You need to respect this thing." I went on to explain how to open it, how to hold it, how NOT to hold it and how to pass it off to another person. I plucked some sticks from the ground and told him we would whittle. Shavings littered his pants like dandruff and concentration was the mask he wore. I realized as we sat on the open tailgate of my truck that I had just opened myself up for the PC police that is soccer moms and douchebag dads who see the pitch as the place to judge and be judged.

"Should I be letting a six-year-old handle a knife?" I thought. But then I've always been a fan of education and figured this was an incredible way to have a hands-on moment with my son about knives and knife safety. Both my boys have helped me cook in the kitchen over the years but this was a whole 'nother ball game discussing knives outside of the butcher block or kitchen table. 

I feel the same about guns 'n' sex. 

I mean, I'm not a member of the NRA, but I think in this day and age it'd probably be best if at some point I enrolled them into some gun safety program because, not that I condone guns, but I live in the South where guns are part of the fabric of life and I want my boys to know what to do should they encounter one. Much in the same way I feel I need to speak to them about condoms and STDs when I speak of sex because, well, kids grow up fast these days. 

And my oldest will turn 10 soon.