290.366 - 2016 project and pocket knives

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

pocket knives

do I appreciate pocket knives?  there are three within reach, at least a couple more in the dresser drawer across from me.  "what on earth might you need five knives within easy access?"  um.  I don't.  I was surprised to learn I had so many so near.  that's a way to measure how much I appreciate them though, isn't it?  that I have so many so near so unconsciously?  oh, and I should admit that two of them aren't really pocket knives, they're "Swiss Army" tools that happen to include a knife blade.  I include them for completeness.  you see, once upon a time I was a little kid, and one of the ways other people drove that home was that I was "too little" to carry my own.  a repeated source of awe in my little kid life would be that something would happen, and an older kid or a grownup would pull out his pocket knife - in my little kid life, girls never carried pocket knives, one of the ways we know the sixties happened is that some women do now - unfold the right blade, make the right cut, and we were all free to go on about our business safe in the knowledge that grownups wouldn't put a stop to it.  someday I was gonna be one of those grownup kids.  well, I have been.  I've cut a pant leg open so "we" could do first aid.  I've cut off a strip of cloth so we could devise a bandage, and once cut out a strip of jeans cloth so someone else could make a tourniquet.  I've cut off the insulation from an electrical cable so "we" could attach a plug, or from wire so "we" could re-solder a connection.  I've whittled away the damaged end of a tool handle so "we" could use the tool even if not as well as before.  I've used a pocket knife tip when no one had an X-acto knife for what was needed.  I've "sharpened" a pencil.  I've shorted out a power supply and ruined a knife blade when that was what was called for.  geez, I can probably add at least a dozen other useful things I've done with a pocket knife.  but 9/11 happened and we (UnitedStatesians) went nuts about surrendering freedoms so we could make believe we had security.  a security cop at work gently suggested that I not bring a pocket knife to work any more, that they were now classified as weapons, and people who carried them were automatically suspected of being terrorists.  fortunately, Lindy has pocket knives of her own so she's not likely to turn me in to the feds for having mine.  yes, I appreciate and respect pocket knives, but if they really do terrify my fellow citizens, then I'm willing to keep them at home and near places I work.  but so far, I haven't been willing to give them up.