Your First Real Knife

For Carbon's 8th birthday we gave him his first swiss army knife. His dad still remembers the first knife that his dad gave to him ... it's part of childhood, and in our culture especially boyhood, to carve and whittle and mess about with a pocket knife.

So far he has peeled the bark from a few sticks to make wands, and has gifted those to his friends. Watching that I am struck by the parts of childhood that aren't a "fad", the parts that seem unchangeable and classic ... and how much more meaningful those classic activities seem to be.