I hate to be repetitious, but I enjoy using letter openers to open letters. It makes me feel like an adult.
I think it stems back to childhood visits to my grandparents in Kansas City. Their homes have always been full of antiques. Running in the house was expressively prohibited when I was younger, for fear of knocking over and subsequently breaking something that was 10 times my age and worth a lot more than a year’s allowance (not that this rule was always followed. I believe me and my cousins ultimately developed an adjusted gait that simply produced less vibrations on the wood floors when we wanted to race).
Most of the items were off limits to touching or close examination. As I got older I was granted permission to flip through some of the older books, but most things remained off limits. While I have grown up, and am less clumsy than before, I still am reluctant to touch some of the items in my grandparent’s house based on the old lessons that were pounded into me.
So in an environment filled with off-limit wonders, the few items I was allowed to touch became that more interesting. Letter openers fell under that category.
I can still remember many of the designs of the letter openers left on the coffee tables, thus located in easy reach. Some had designs with animals, fantastic faces, or my personal favorite, shaped like an Arabian sword plucked from Arabian Knights.
I was allowed to pick them up, but never had the chance to use them. That was something that adults got to do, I thought at the time, meaning it would be a very long time before I could take a crack at it.
When I started my new job, I was delighted that my desk came with a letter opener. It had a regular dulled metal blade and a wooden handle, which is not as cool as a minerature sword, but it does the trick.
Pathetic? Probably, but I use this perk whenever I can. And with the influx of recent birthday cards (sent by people who have better timing when it comes to mailing such missives), I’ve gotten even more use of them as of late.
So thanks for the cards and the chance to exercise an adult privilege I would put on a scale a few pegs below voting and a bit higher than paying my own taxes: using a letter opener.
