for you i'd bleed myself dry

today i taught a guy how to peel a potato. he didn't know how. he had no idea. he took the peeler and tried to scrape the peel off with the edge. i kept showing him that you had to lay it flat, that it was sharp in the middle like a knife, but he didn't get it. he would just turn the peeler on it's side again and start scraping away. finally i got up, went around the garbage can we were gathered around and put the potato in his hand, the peeler in the other hand and guided him through a peel like a tennis instructor would guide you with a stroke. it wasn't until i did this that he got the hang of it. then he worked on his potato with obvious effort but a lot of pride. while i shaved off big long peels with one stroke, he inched off measly little peels in double the time, and he had to rest often, making big sighs and pointing to his arm, but when each potato was done he looked so happy, so accomplished. i think that was the best thing i did today. i taught someone to peel a potato.