Duct Tape and Blades Part 1- 09/27/2010

When ever you are working with power tools or things with blades it is always a good idea to have a first-aide kit nearby. I am going to tell you a couple of stories and then apply that to life and see if we can find the significance to Duct Tape and Blades.

I remember hearing a story once when I was younger, now I don't know if it was true or not, and it went like this. A veteran woodworker was working in his shop one day using his table saw to cut some wood. When the thing that every woodworker dreads happened. Somehow his finger came to close to the moving blade and it cut deep into his finger. In my memory it had made it to the bone but had not cut all the way through. A wound this deep has a tendency to bleed. Now like every good woodworker does he had a well stocked first-aide kit near by, Not. He had to think quickly and grabbed a near by shop towel to keep from bleeding all over the place. But that wasn't doing enough so what did he do? He grabbed a roll of Duct Tape and taped and cut a section of towel to wrap around his finger and then wrapped the area with duct tape. It was a great first-aide move and he was then able to drive himself to the doctor where they fixed his finger up good.

In high school I did construction the summer after my sophomore year until the summer before my senior year. While doing a remodel on a house outside of the Salem area I had my own Duct Tape moment. Mine did not involve a saw but it did involve a gas powered framing nail gun that used 16 penny nails. I had been nailing angle cut 2 x 4 toenail style to the upright 2 x 4 of a section of wall. Somehow on this one board my aim was off or the nail hit something and curved right into my hand on the back side of the 2 boards I was nailing together. I will save the description of what it sounded like or felt like when I pulled my hand away as it was filled with the pain of the nail being thrust at high-speed into my hand. Of course being well prepared construction workers we had a first-aide kit. Well we did. . . . The problem was that it was kept in my bosses truck and he had left sometime before the accident to run some sort of errand. So there I was no first-aide kit bleeding quiet a bit. I didn't want to risk bleeding all over the floor in the customers house as I attempted to find band-aides in their home. So I went to my car in hopes that I could find something to at least clean up the blood and reduce its flow until my boss got back. Now I didn't find any shop towels but I did have some napkins from some fast food restaurant and upon further looking I found a roll of that multifunctional Duct Tape. I think it was left in my car from a repair of a rip in the back seat. So using the tools at my resources I completed first-aide on myself and was well enough to go back to work until the boss arrived and I could better bandage myself up.

Now My third story doesn't involve Duct Tape but it does involve a injury that needed first-aide in a place that is a little difficult to administer to yourself. A friend of mine and my wife's, she was only friends with my wife at this point because we had just meant. Had somehow stepped on a medal tent stake, we are not talking about one of the nice nail like ones with the plastic near the head but one of those cheap sheet metal ones that the roll up to a pointy tip, and it had ripped out a chunk of flesh on the bottom outside edge of her foot. If you have ever tried this is not an easy part of your body to try and administer first-aide to. Luckily for our friend I am well trained and experienced in first-aide. So using a first-aide kit I was able to clean and bandage her foot quite nicely.

Lets stop here and ponder a few questions. Have you ever done something in your life and after you where standing on the other end of the consequences of the action thought to yourself or asked 'Why didn't someone warn me?'? Or maybe some one did but they were persistent in their warning, or did it in an unloving way and again you end up on the other end of the choice again asking 'Why didn't they try harder?'? Now Maybe the woodworker and the saw wished he would have listened to those who told him to be careful with that saw. Or maybe I wished that there would have been some one there to see my aim was wrong and they could have warned me. Mistakes happen and bad choices occur sometimes with out warning and sometimes with a warning or two. Either case doesn't matter what does matter is that when they do happen that first-aide is needed even if it is just some Duct Tape. From my many experience with first-aide on both sides of the situation first-aide is always easier with the help of another. So that is my second thought is that when the choice is made even if the person ignored your warning we need to be there to help.

So this is the first part of what I believe will be a two part blog. Let me leave you with this from the wisdom of Solomon and my final thought 'How important is it to be a part of a community?'.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (New Living Translation)
9 Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. 11 And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? 12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.