Tag! You're it!

Knives, hatchets, sling shots, bb guns, pellet guns- these were some of the playthings the boys in my neighborhood were surrounded by when I was a kid. Now don't get me wrong ,I'm not about to tell you about how terrible this was , because it was great. To be a ten year old boy with a pocketknife handy is to rule the world.

Of course with great power comes great responsibility- young boys are not always the most responsible creatures , witness a game of bb gun tag. Better yet , don't witness a game of bb gun tag.

Real weapons with real consequences can teach you that it is important to focus, to pay attention. They can also teach you to be a jerk.

A neighbor from down the street was playing with a piece of wood and a hatchet. No point to the game , just the satisfying "thwack" of the blade hitting the wood. The game just gets better as the blade sinks deeper into the wood. It takes a second to pull it out now, and then "thwack". Once more and...........

Yes, it's that "once more" that makes all the difference. One second everything is fine and then things are changed.

Once more.... He had ten fingers and a second later he had nine fingers. Luckily I didn't witness this or else I would have been curled up in fetal position, whimpering, for the next five years. Now , this was way back when, so there was no wrapping the finger in ice and rushing to the" sew the hacked off finger back on surgeon" . No ,this was back when you just walked around with nine fingers.

I will admit that after the initial horror passed ,the hand became the epitome of cool. We could actually say we knew a guy who had hacked off a finger with a hatchet. Cool.

I was reminded of this incident and the whole idea of going one step too far twice this week. There was the young college student in New York who, in a drunken stupor, thought it was a good idea to climb out on the ledge (about 30 stories up) with her camera to take some pictures.

There was also the story of a Dr. who went to find her boyfriend, he wasn't home and the house was locked.One second she's locked outside and then she get's the idea that she'll climb into the house by way of the chimney, getting stuck in the process. (and dying) The horror of this almost makes me want to crawl up in fetal position and whimper.

Instead I'll just sit here and count my fingers.
Ten.