One of my ‘en-light-en-ment’ experiences:

I was a runaway, and I was around 14 years old. My aunt had invited me to camp with her and her boyfriend and another family. I accepted, and I brought a unique ‘self-retrieving’ fly reel that belonged to my father with me. It’s upper face was a green disc about 1/2 an inch thick, which one would ‘wind’ and it would ratchet during this process.

Once wound, the depression of a button would cause rapid retrieval of fishing line. I was told that another boy around my age was coming, but that his family would probably arrive late in the night. I went to sleep, excited to have a chance to try the fly rod and reel, and to meet the boy.

He arrived around 2 in the morning, and came into my tent. We had a flashlight. I was excited to show him the fly reel. He asked how it worked, and I started to take it apart (it could be opened with a single twist of the upper section).

As I did so, I heard a buzzing, whirring sound, and wetness sprayed into my face. For a moment… I was completely without thinking. Pure mind of accident. My consciousness become only flow. Then, I slowly began to wonder what had happened, my hand was gushing blood, there was blood everywhere.

When I cleaned it up, I found a spiralized gash in my left palm. The reel had been fully wound, and the clockspring-like core of the reel :|: real had leapt from its windings, and unspun into my palm, like a spiraling razor.

I was not able to fish, and we returned early from the trip. I was somewhat proud of my injury, and now, many years later, the idea of a spiral being cut into my left palm is fraught with fascinating metaphoric extensions…