2.36 x 0.5 inches

The US Transportation Security Administration which sets rules for items not allowed on flights has just changed its post 9/11 policy to allow for small pocketknives with blades smaller than 2.36 inches long and 0.5 inches wide.

I know on the rare occasions when I’ve had to enter a public building and go through a security screening, that its a real hassle to not be allowed to take my small Swiss Army Utility Knife, which is always attached to my keychain, with me.

A small knife (along with the nail file, scissors, toothpick, and tweezers) is a useful little tool that everyone should be allowed to have with them.

When I was young me and my cousins all had pocket knives with much longer blades than the itsy one on my Swiss Army keychain one, and we used to carve things all the time. Mostly we would take pieces of wood and make spears.

When we were young we used to go out near the forest and play for hours. I think we had this fascination for Indians (now they would be called Native Americans but to us kids the term was Indians). We used to build teepees out of branches. The whole Indian thing was somehow a part of my growing up as a child. Maybe we were all connected to it through past lives and it was still manifesting in us.

I’ve always felt a strong connection with warrior spirit and that spirit seems to be very universal amongst humans across all cultures. There is a warrior wisdom – sometimes sorely lacking among “leaders” who sit in their offices making horrible decisions – which is primal and understood by all.

I’ve always felt the responsibility, from a young age, to integrate that warrior wisdom into ecological living. The warrior wisdom has a profound respect for the way of nature. Taoism, which appeals to me so much, taps deeply into warrior spirit to deep, mystical and mythical levels.

Anyhow, I’m glad that at least in one more place knives are allowed, because to me there is something uniquely human about a knife. Heidegger discusses tools and how they relate to humans. A knife is perhaps the most primal tool.

All this thinking about knives makes me want to upgrade my Swiss knife. I’m trying to decide if I like the model with an orange peeler with a scraper, screwdriver with ruler, and ballpoint pen; or the one with an orange peeler with screwdriver, tweezers, and cuticle pusher.