(This has been in an open tab waiting on me to turn it into a post of my own I’ve forgotten where it came from. Whoever you are that pointed it out to me, you have my thanks, anonymous though they are.)
Since long before I got my concealed carry permit, I’ve been a prepper. Before that, I was one of those evil survivalists. (Yeah, I’ve been walking this path in one direction or another for a while.) As I became more and more ready for “come what may”, I noticed an interesting thing happening.
Nothing much was happening.
Now, it’s not that nothing bad ever happened in my life. Stuff happens to me like it happens to most people. But when it happens to someone who is prepared for it, it isn’t a big deal. You handle it and move on. A good example is my family’s run in with Old Man Winter earlier this year. Sure, it wasn’t fun (Mrs. Freeholder was quite put out), but at the end of the thing, it really wasn’t a huge disaster. But imagine if there had been no wood stove, no generator, no insurance–oh yes, it would have been a disaster indeed.
I’ve distilled the whole thing down into a saying: “Trouble seeks the unprepared.”
I’m not the only one to have made the observation. John Johnston at Ballistic Radio has noticed the same thing when it comes to self defense training. While he notes that you don’t need training to defend yourself, the training not only enhances the likelihood that you can do so successfully, but that it also reduces the chances that you will have to.
Yep. As one trainer told me, “This stuff changes the way you live.” He was right, it does. You look at people and situation differently, and you look at yourself and the decisions you make differently. You keep you temper. You don’t return the favor to the driver to flips you off in traffic. You don’t take the shortcut through the sketchy neighborhood. You go to this store rather than that store. Dozens of things subtly change when you carry a gun and when you’ve trained in self defense.
In essence, you become a part of Heinlein’s polite society. Not a bad thing at all if you ask me.