Hienlin is one of my faves, and not just becuase of the survival/competence aspects...
When I recieved my first knife at the age of 5, I took it to school for show and tell. My parents fought to get it back from the Principal for a month. I still have it!
I went on my first alone camping outing when I was 10. It was a great time - and I found out later that my parents were two camping sitea over... just in case.
The first time I was taken to a deer hunt as a participant, I didn't get to shoot at anything. But then again, no one did. That was a cold, yet not snowy 16th winter for me.
My beautiful Sleeper was a birthday present when I was 17. She is a bastaard sword hand made by a gentleman in Utah. She hangs on my wall and is in several photoshoot spreads I have done. And I only used her on the honeysuckle bushes once... I have a machete for that!
I had a SAK given to me when I moved out of the 'Stead. I was only 22, what did I know about living on my own? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> (I came running back after a year...)

It is a sorry day that more people do not know what it is like to have a blade as a tool. Anything can be used to kill someone, or maim them so badly that they want to be dead. It takes a good blade to cut a stick for roasting marshmallows. I wouldn't go anywhere without my SAK with the torx driver in it for feild repairs. Only a good machete will go through the underbrush that grows in the back yard at the 'Stead. And only idiots don't know what it is like to live without a blade available. Like in Disney!

Just a little rambling...

Rena