Quality of Life

[IlikeSA]

I was the one who originally posted about the door clicker, which I learned from here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lwzTeB6cXc&feature=fvwrel

There are a whole series of scenarios, some are decent, some I thought were stupid. The one with the door clicker is what stuck with me.

In terms of your question on quality of life, I am in condition yellow most of the time. At home, I am in condition eggshell (between white and yellow) unless I am asleep, in which case people could pound on the door and I would be blissfully ignorant. I think as life goes by, for me at least, these habits become ingrained so much that it doesn't seem like we are living in yellow, we just are, and it feels normal.

Overall, it is like rolling a dice. The odds that something violent could happen to any of us as individuals is fairly low. My Mom and Dad do not carry a gun, and cannot understand why I would, because "nothing has ever happened to us." A fair number of us on this board do carry, because we like the odds of violence a little lower, and better in our defense should violence occur. Perhaps that is what separates us from others.

 

[MrsSmith]

Wow - great thread with some really thought provoking posts. That's why I joined this forum!

For me, it comes down to situational awareness and being prepared.

I, like most who've posted, don't walk around 24/7 on a constant state of alert. However, awareness of what's going on around me (who's nearby, where I am in relation to my car/home/nearest exit, does that face/car look familiar, why's that guy checking out the security guard and trying to act like he isn't, who just bumped my backside, what are the dogs barking at, what was that noise I don't normally hear at 0300?) those questions come naturally from a lifetime of being aware of whats going on around me. I'm a girl - we learn early on that we either pay attention or suffer the consequences. I don't stop and think, "should I question this?" or "am I in danger?" Its ingrained habit, business as usual. No real extra effort required. Yes, there's reliance on intuition (spidey sense) and there's trust in your ability to determine what's safe and what isn't. But I've never once felt that my life was overly complicated just because I'm alert. Beats the alternative.

The other side of that coin is preparedness. I always joke that if you prepare for the worst it will never happen. But the truth of it is, if you're prepared the worst doesn't happen because you don't get to the point of it being that bad. If you lock your doors at night, the possibility of someone walking through one goes down exponentially. If you don't walk through a dark alley by yourself, the risk of being mugged in a dark alley drops. That isn't to say that something you are totally unprepared for won't happen, but it's all about minimizing the risks - and WITHOUT obsessing about it. You do what you need to do and call it good.

There are those who walk through life with blinders on and never see or comprehend the reality of this life. And on the other end of that spectrum there are those who do answer the door wearing a vest, a full auto in one hand and a grenade in the other. The rest of us are somewhere in the middle - and where to find your middle ground is entirely up to you. Keep in mind too, common sense goes a long way and while there are some pretty evil people out there, the majority of the criminal population can be kept at bay just by using a common sense approach to conducting yourself.