I also have been carrying a knife all of my life. And at age 65, I just can’t seem to give up the habit. The problem is that we are nomads. Sometimes we are in California, sometimes in Maine and everywhere in between.

I keep a leatherman on my belt most of the time. I get weird stares when I cut string at Home Depot (it is a TOOL folks!). But I also keep rather larger knife tools in my backpack. And Sometimes I forget what I have where.

For instance I was about to enter a museum in Chicago, after living in the desert for a few months. As usual, as we began our walk, I grabbed the pack from behind the seat. It is an automatic motion, I hardly think about it. Besides the extra water, a few MRE’s and such, there is a Becker BK-10 and a Benchmade folder. It was only as I entered the large museum doors and was confronted with the stern looking security guy with his metal detector did I even think about the knives, but then I broke into a sweat.

Fortunately for me, there was a baggage check system before the security check and I quietly checked all my “dangerous weapons” (including the leatherman) before being wanded by the security guy.

The world is different place. And I for one am having a bit of a problem with it all. People can’t start fires; they shy away from any knife sharper than the one they use to butter their bread. And guns…. Well you must be some sort of nut if you possess a gun, much less carry one.

As we left Maine in ’97 at the beginning of our wandering, I noticed the fences along the interstates. To keep the animals off the road I was told. Then I noticed fences were everywhere. Especially at routes would use to escape to the woods. All the roads were blocked and it was beginning to be difficult to leave the populated areas. I began to feel like a dog in a kennel. A big kennel, but a kennel, never the less.

So we have made a quest out of finding places that are not under the stringent control of those that must take care of us. It is harder and harder to find such places. We manage to dig our way under the fence, and run wild a bit, but …. Well we seem to always find another fence in our way.

Now the fences are becoming less tangible, but with the same effect. They stop us from being responsible for our own safety, they make us more dependent on those who must take care of us.

Most of the older civilized world has a much stricter policy than ours. I understand the in England and most of Europe, carrying a knife like my BK-10, or Benchmade would be a serious mistake. I fear we are traveling the same road. And I am stumbling a bit as I make my way.

I guess if you never had the freedom, you don’t miss it.

As a teenager, I could blow a stump with dynamite, I could operate heavy equipment, I could ride a horse by myself for long distances in remote areas. We all did that sort of thing, (Male and female I might add), And sometimes we got seriously hurt. But we did what we did and nobody said we could not.

If you did have the freedom, …..then you miss it terribly.

So it is not just the knife in this modern world, it is the whole tightening of the system about our freedom. It is being done by well meaning people who are afraid of each other. I guess I can’t find fault with being afraid, I have had many moments of terror in my life. They have to do what they have to do. But so do I, and that is where the problem begins.