I had a lady tell me once that she would never use a hunting knife in the kitchen, because that would be too sharp. She was an employee of Fiskars, housewares division, in charge of marketing for the Gerber Balance Plus kitchen knives.
let me see if i can get this right:
hunting knives are used to cut and dress animals after they are killed.
kitchen knives are used to cut and dress meat after you bring it home.
OK, i think i've got that part.
so, my big question for Ms. Gerber Rep would be, why do you need a sharper knife to cut the steaks in the field than you need to cut the steaks once you get them home?
refrigeration softens the meat, i guess. or maybe it's the radiation from the flourescent lights that does it. the ceremonial wrappings of brown paper with the words "albertson's butcher shop" have a wonderful effect on tough meat, i hear...
or...could it be....
gasp! because MEN use hunting knives and WOMEN use kitchen knives, and men can use Very Sharp Knives more safely than women can...........ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
ok, ok, ok, the chalupa's on the floor and my hands are in plain sight...but really, where does she think that roast beef she's slicing comes from???
i think our culture does to food preparation what it does to death: hides the reality from folks, puts lots of euphemisms in the way, protects folks from the harsh realities so no one has to deal with anything TRULY messy--or anything truly sharp. death is bad. sharp is dangerous.
yep, it's a religious/moral problem all right. we don't want the grownup responsibility of dealing with death or sharp knives, so we dull ourselves and our blades to nice, safe, sitcom levels...and leave death to mortuaries, and sharp knives to hunters, gang members, and navy seals.
meanwhile, "regular folk" get further and further away from REAL life, and from the knowledge and skills necessary to sustain and respect that life.
i guess it's just easier not to have any adult responsibilities--like looking death in the face when it knocks on the door, or like learning to handle a sharp knife without cutting yourself. (whoa, silverwing, preachin' to the choir there, girl...now sit back down in that pew....)
but all children gotta grow up sometime, or they miss out on so much richness in life.
and as with real children, we can't force these blade-heathens to grow. we've just got to wait till they're ready, and deal with the fact that some folk may never be ready.
that's part of being an adult, too: being respectful of other people's limits and fears. this is the part i screw up on all the time
silverwing
