Friday, March 3, 2017

In Search of Creativity

Things are going really well for me lately.  I have a job in the industry I enjoy.  My family is great and loves me.  I have a hobby that I'm somewhat good at.  I just recently lost 25lbs and still counting. We have several family vacations planned for this year.  Our church is amazing and growing.  So why am I so discontent?  Other than it being human nature to always seek fulfillment in something other than God, there has to be a reason.

I have come to the conclusion recently that for me, with my personality type, I just need creativity on a regular basis.  I need to dream and achieve something new.  Take my job for example.  I really do love the company I work for, but I've been there for six months doing the exact same thing and I'm starting to get bored.  When I get bored I get frustrated, which can turn to rebellion and self destructive decisions if not put in check.

Today I'm sitting here in front of the computer with 2.5 hours a free time and... WAIT what the heck am I doing spilling my guts to a keyboard when I could be out doing something interesting and creative?  I guess blogging could be considered creative... Nah, I need to go do something.  Bear with me, I'll be back...

And I'm back.  I ended up exploring a new area of a state forest and taking some wildlife photos.  Nothing too amazing, but just enough to be considered "creative play".  I can't stress enough how important that is to the human spirit.  We get bogged down with life so easily sometimes.  God has created us to enjoy adventure.  In short, don't miss an opportunity to get outside and try something new.  You never know what you may find, not the least of all being an untouched part of your soul.

-ME


Sunday, January 15, 2017

Fighting Myself

I have this strange habit of contradicting myself.  It's actually related to my personality type.  I do it in so many ways that it has become quite the annoyance for me.  My purpose here is not to point out all of my shortcomings, but rather to discuss my most recent annoyance related to concealed carry and personal defense.

I have taken a good handful of professional tactical pistol courses over the past 20 years and one of the main things I've taken away as gospel is that you must find and utilize what is most efficient in terms of personal protection.  For example, choosing to carry a firearm in an ankle holster is probably one of the worst things you can do.  When ambushed and forced to defend yourself you need to move quickly toward cover or a position of safety, preferably while drawing your pistol and potentially returning fire.  How can you possibly move and draw from an ankle holster at the same time?  It's nearly impossible.  At the very least it's not efficient.  This is just one of many, but it helps make my point that efficiency is close to godliness when it comes to gunfighting.

Now on to my current conundrum.  The most comfortable way for me to carry a pistol, and the most comfortable pistol for me to carry is a snub nose revolver in the appendix position.  The problem is that a revolver is not the best defensive tool.  Knowing this yet also wanting maximum comfort is a problem I face daily.  Because I know you're itching to hear my answer to why a revolver is not a good defensive tool, I'll get that out of the way.  Revolvers are generally heavier than small frame automatics, have longer and heavier trigger press, are less accurate due to short barrels and heavier triggers, hold fewer rounds, and take much longer to reload when precious seconds count.  In short a 5 shot revolver will always be a poor choice for personal defense when compared to say a Glock 19 which is pretty much the antithesis to any revolver.  Feel free to nit-pick and ask more questions of a tactical nature in the comments section below.  I'm always happy to hash it out with you.

Back to what frustrates me so much about this.  I don't want to be unarmed.  I don't want to carry an inferior tool for protection. I want to be as comfortable as possible, but honestly if I'm uncomfortable I'm less likely to carry a pistol at all. (weak mind I know) I haven't practiced with my revolver nearly enough to feel supremely confident with it.  So I guess the question causing so much torment for me is this - is it better to carry something than nothing at all?  Is it ok that the revolver may leave me at a serious disadvantage in a gunfight?  Basically I'm trying to determine if it's ok to sacrifice efficiency and tactical advantage for comfort and ease of carry?  Your thoughts would be appreciated.

--ME