Alaska Knife Nose
In 1999 I had the opportunity to speak to a group of 65 twelve and thirteen year old boys in Anchorage, Alaska. My topic was making good decisions. As part of my presentation I asked the boys how many of them had scars anywhere their bodies? Of course almost every hand went up. I knew that some of them would most likely have gotten their scars making dumb decisions. My thought was to let a few of them share their “scar stories” and then try to teach them to think of possible positive and negative consequences before making any decision.
The first little boy I called on said he was riding down the side of a mountain on a sheet of tin and…well you know where this one is going. Sure enough when he hit bottom he was cut badly by the tin which left a big scar. I of course emphasized that he should have thought of that possibility before getting on the sheet of tin to ride down the side of a mountain.
The next boy said that his brother was jumping on a trampoline and he walked under it and stood up. He was knocked to the ground and hit his head on a piece of cement which left a scar on his head. My message again was to think about the consequences before standing up under a trampoline while someone is jumping on it.
The third boy I called on said that he was born with six toes on each foot and the doctor had to cut one off of each foot. He asked if I wanted to see the scars. I wasn’t sure how respond to that one. I just told him that I didn’t need to see his scars and didn’t comment on making good decisions.
The last little boy shared a scar story that I will never forget. Although I didn’t see it happen, his experience is stamped deep in my memory because it is vivid in my mind. He told the group that he was sitting on the kitchen counter picking his nose with a knife. While doing so he somehow he managed to fall off the counter while he was in the process with the knife still in his hand. He cut a gash at the top of his nose and forehead barely missing his eye and leaving a scar. Of course the message was obvious: Don’t pick your…
