The smallest knife on the block | 07.04.2017

07.04.2017

I have 3 ‘sharp’ ‘non-stick’ knives. All from the same brand, these should be “the good knives”, the preferred knives, if you will.
And yet, even with the simplest vegetable, fruit or meat, I find myself struggling to hack through anything. And my goodness do they stick, it’s almost as if the whole meal decides to manifest itself on the back of the knife.
Still, I tend to come back to these knives again and again. Struggling, over and over, and why? Well, they’re the ‘sharpest’ and most ‘non-sticky’ knives on the block…right?

I find myself doing that allot. Falling back to something because I ‘should’, or because that’s the most ‘logical’ choice, the one I’m ‘supposed’ to make. Despite the fact that it may do more harm than good.

Now that I think of it, that’s the definition of insanity; repeating something under the exact same circumstances expecting a different outcome. Perhaps I’m just a little insane, but hey, a little insanity is like kindling to the creative brain, right?

On the flip side, this is an excellent way to practice more creative problem-solving. To look further than the supposed boundaries, to live/think outside the, societally constructed, ‘box’.

This concept excites me. Nothing makes my pupils dilate, my heart race and my brain tingle more that the challenge of creative thinking. Well, okay, some things might make me do that a little more, but this is definitely, 100%, not the environment to talk about that kind of thing…

This is something I already do by nature; noticing the small things, the medium things and the big things. Noticing the way they interact, the way they move, the tiniest detail and the largest detail, and then, subsequently, connecting the dots. 

That’s what creative problem solving is to me, connecting the dots of seemingly unrelated things, to create a new way of looking at one certain thing.

This brings me back to the knives. After not having washed my dishes for a while, because, well, I’m a young person living on my own, I believe it’s in my contract to be messy, and have lot’s of dirty dishes, I had to resort to the small, unused knife that I had hiding away amongst the teaspoon, symbolising its status. 

It turns out that that one little knife was, and is, an estimated 5 million times sharper and more stick resistant that all the other knives combined. Putting me in my place for not thinking of the little one earlier, because, well, as mentioned, it was the little knife in the teaspoon drawer.

The same reflects on other situations in life. Like when story writing; not thinking of a certain character, because he/she is so minor, or not giving a certain line as part of a dialogue because, well that could be a little out there. When editing, and not even considering adding a certain shot, or deleting a certain scene, because, well, it’s ‘supposed’ to be there..

Anyway, my point is, that in lots of situations in life there will be a metaphorical, little knife in a teaspoon drawer. You just need to have a wee look around, and maybe not do your dishes for a while. 

Or, you know, you could also actually have good knives and not be insane like me…one of the two…