Sharpen the Saw
Earlier this morning, I was trying to cut up some pork chops I made yesterday for the pups. The chops were tough. Last night, I’d already had trouble cutting them with my steak knife, but this morning I figured I’d do better.
I pulled the leftovers from the refrigerator, grabbed a slicing knife from the butcher block, and tried to hack those tough little buggers into bite-sized pieces for the doggos’ breakfast.
The chops were cold.
The 10-inch slicing knife was not doing its job.
I switched to my santoku—my usual go-to—to see if that would help. Nope. Same thing. The blade wouldn’t penetrate the meat. I finally resorted to a plain old table steak knife. It worked, but only with a lot of effort.
I actually worked up a sweat doing this small task.
I kept discarding one knife after another as each failed. Then it dawned on me: I hadn’t sharpened my knives in a couple of months.
That realization triggered a memory.
My mother used unsharpened knives, and it used to drive me crazy. I’d go to her house to help with a family meal, select a knife to chop an onion, and—nothing. I’d do the same thing there that I had done this morning: select another knife. And another. Same result every time. A hacked-up mess.
I asked her why she didn’t sharpen her knives. I asked my dad why he hadn’t sharpened them.
Mom told me she was afraid of cutting herself.
Dad said Mom wouldn’t let him sharpen the knives.
What?
Didn’t they know that dull knives actually cause more accidents in the kitchen than sharp ones? According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, dull knives require excessive force to cut, which makes them more likely to slip unpredictably and cause more severe, jagged wounds. In other words, what feels safer often isn’t safer at all.
(Source: University of Rochester Medical Center, Health Encyclopedia – Kitchen Safety: Knife Injuries, https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/Content?contentTypeID=1&ContentID=263)
I already knew this—I didn’t really need the citation—but I wanted to cover my statement with research. Sometimes facts help us challenge long-held assumptions.
Once I finished the sweat-inducing task of cutting pork chops for the pups, a “thing” came to mind.
It was the seventh habit from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Sharpen the Saw. Yes, I’ve read the book, and yes, I attended a three-day workshop on implementing these strategies in the classroom.
I remembered that “Sharpening the Saw” meant renewing ourselves physically, mentally, socially/emotionally, and spiritually. To me, it meant stepping away for a while—to renew and reflect—so that we can begin again.
(Are you seeing a pattern here? January’s theme is Renewal.)
As I gathered all my dull knives and pulled out the whetstone to do a thorough job, I wondered if my parents’ dull knives had been a metaphor for something in their lives. Did they not see the need for renewal? Did they have other ways of meeting their physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual needs?
I don’t know.
They were pretty great—stable and put together. Maybe it was as simple as my mother believing sharp knives were more dangerous than dull ones.
My dull knives, however, were a wake-up call.
They reminded me that I need to intentionally schedule time to step back for my own renewal. Time to reflect and plan for my physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual needs.
I’ve already done much of this through the habits I established for the new year. Not resolutions—habits. And now, I will also schedule time to get away and work on sharpening my saw.
So let me ask you:
Do you have dull knives?
Do you need to sharpen your saw?
Can you get away to do that—or do you pull out the whetstone right where you are?
However you choose to sharpen your saw, remember this:
you’re making your life safer by doing so.
Blessings,
Bethanne
