Sometimes my friends chuckle at my EDC, especially my female friends who's purses aren't as big as my bag of tricks. But they also ask if have XYZ in there.

On several occasions my wonderful (really!) wife has referred to me as "the minute man" because I'm always ready with some emergency gear. She and the kids just got used to it over the years and it's just a part of life now even with the kids grown and gone. When I was still working criminal justice jobs and was usually armed the whole family would chant in the car as we pulled into the gas station "If there is a robbery or any incident hit the floor."

The people I work with and our friends don't seem to have a clue - but they never seem very surprised when I've got extra gloves, hat, scarf even a coat when someone needs one. It just seems like when a quick fix tool is needed or some other minor "emergency" happens I'm the one with a response for it.

In the same token when we rolled up on an accident a few years ago the wife called 911 on the cell, I went with our first aid kit for initial care and son got the flares out and put them on the roadside all with out prompting then came to assist me. While I can't seem to get the family to totally buy in with proper preparation, they are a lot better off than most as they do have some good information and experience to draw on as well as tending to carry some sensible extras when out and about.

I don't think anyone I know really has any idea that I've got the gear I've got and that I'm as prepared as I am. That's fine with me their ignorance is my bliss!

Appros of my previous:

My girlfriends sisters boyfriend (confused yet?) was struggling to change the bulb of one of his car's headlights. In the dark. Wasn't going very well.

So I decided to put him out of his misery and lend a paw. Started off using my Inova X-5, decided that it need a both hands so I switched to my head torch. Plus a couple of other bits out of my E.D.C.


Anyway, he's watching this performance with some bemusment and getting a lecture about the merits of carrying a reflective vest and a headtorch etc in his car.

Eventually he looks at me and asks: "Leigh, what exactly do you do for a living?"

My wife and I have a running joke about being prepared. Where I am from in New England, if snow is forecast, everyone runs out and buys milk and bread. Down here in the South, the paper had a picture of two guys getting "ready for the big storm" carrying a case of beer, 2 bags of chips and a carton of smokes.

Everyone prepares differently. Some people's deliberate non-preparation is their preparation - "It can't happen to me".

I am not preparing to save the world, only my little corner of it. And if having some small tools readily available most of the time will help me do so, so be it.

not really; it's one of the advantages of living in the rural south. Most around here(my hometown) EDC some amount of useful gadgets. I was sort-of known as the go-to guy in highschool, even though i couldn't carry a knife(and contrary to popular belief, there WERE a few times when one would have been legitimately useful), and there an OMG WTF? moment once when a friend complained after lunch of a food bit stuck in his teeth and i pulled a Flosscard out of my wallet.

Nope, survival training is part of the job, the guys I work with have to some extent BTDT. The EDC tools people see are a Spartan SAK and a Squirt E4. No one really knows or asks what is in my backpack.

There's nothing more reprehensible than disdain for the weak. Back when I was an active firefighter and we did various trauma incidents, we never once suggested to the person who had a pole through their abdomen that they should have driven a different route. When we did search and rescue in the woods for lost hunters, we didn't need to tell them (if they were alive) that they should have packed better.

It's better to just be an example, and leave it at that. Some will follow your lead, some won't and that's OK.

And as far as "sheep" go - I get sick of that term for others, as it's both disparaging to sheep and not really accurate.

Human society isn't as simple as sheep, sheep dogs and some kind of Shepherd overseeing it all (if you're into that sort of thing).

In fact, it's far more subtle and complex, much more like a gigantic baseball club. In the same way the pitcher isn't going to be equipped to cut the grass and the stadium announcer certainly won't be batting cleanup, we all have our part to play on earth and if you spend lots of time pointing out how bad the other guy is at what you're good at, you'll never really be a part of the team. On the other hand, if you make what you're good at help the team, you're doing us all some good.

So, yeah, I know a lot of my friends are ill-equipped for things I'm well equipped for. But you know what? A few years ago, my friend's then 9 year old girl took the dogs for a walk and vanished for hours. They didn't call 911, they called ME (I called 911 for them). But what an honor to be thought of as a person to be relied upon to quickly deal with a situation like that.

So that's how I deal with the folks who occasionally tweak me - like a coworker of mine - for being "over prepared". I smile and say, "Hey, look, we're in New York City. If something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen here again. So who would you rather have sitting in the same office, me or someone else?" That always gets a smile - and eventually, I do get the side questions about what kind of multi-tool they should carry and all that.

So, don't worry about the Chicken Little accusations. Just be clear, they are not dumb or inferior - they are just people who see the world differently than you.

I occasionally hear the "MacGyver, Boy Scout, Inspector Gadget" reference but it does not bother me at all. People get to know that you are prepared and the less equipped people often come to me for help. It has gotten to the point at work that if I am taking my packsack in the bush, my work partner does not even bring his.

It is a sign of our changing times. I gave a presentation on Basic Wilderness Survival Skills to the local rural Anglers and Hunters group last week. The is an older crowd with most of the members being 45 years and older. When I talked about EDC, I asked "who carries a knife every day", almost all did, and about half carried carried a means to make a fire. This was normal to them as they have carried these tools ever since they were children.

When I ask the same questions to a younger group (teenagers to mid 20's) almost no one carried a knife and it seemed odd to them that anyone would. Society is changing, we cannot carry the "tools of survival" everywhere with us anymore as we are expected to rely on others for our safety and security.

People today are interested and can be educated in preparedness, an example of this happened last weekend. My teenage daughter was invited out with a group of classmates to celebrate a boy's 14th birthday. My daughter asked me what a teenage boy would like for a present? After laughing over the obvious reply, I found amongst my rubble a new boxed medium-size Swiss Army Knife (Weekender model I think). My daughter was not sure this was a good gift, but it was last minute so she wrapped it. As it turned out the SAK was a big hit, her friend really liked it and maybe we have made someone a little more prepared.

(I should conclude this story buy saying that I know the boy who received the SAK is a responsible good kid and his parents would have no problem with him havining a knife.)

Mike

Definitely an honor. Thanks for the great perspective.

ROFL! What did you tell him? I wouldn't have been able to resist messing with his mind.