In seeing trends and crazes, lots of times you have to rub you brow and wonder out loud what some people are thinking. I've had that feeling for several weeks and I'll tell you what I did. As many of you know, my wife and I go to the same coffee bar, originally because it was just on the way home. In doing that, we have made numerous friends who are baristas. One of them is a Hunger Games fan, and also a real-deal archer in her personal life. She looks a little like the actress who played Katniss, and so she used hair and make-up to dress up for the first midnight showing of the film when it opened here. Like many folks, she got caught up in the lore. And like many people, there comes a fine line between fantasy and reality. Consider the movie "Fight Club." She's a good kid, and I had some concerns. In my job, I sell items to cops, soldiers, survivalists and the EMS. These aren't toys, my soldiers take my knives to the middle-east when they get deployed. I make sure they have the best stuff I can find. (Go google Zero Tolerance knives.) So, last week I contacted my rep for ESEE knives and told him to send me their "two pack" of survivalist arrowheads. These tips are worlds away from "target archery equipment." These broadheads are desinged to kill in the most dire conditions. Last night my wife and went to the coffee bar, and the found this barista sitting there on her day off, reading books, having coffee and in a relaxed mood. I told her of my concerns and beliefs. It was more of a confirmation. We asked her if we could discuss this overall topic. The tips come in a ballistic nylon sheath in rubberized pockets, and are convenient to store in a field jacket or possibles pouch/bag. I held them out, and she extended her hand. I told her plainly, "This is now a dividing line. From this moment on, your point of view might change. You have the skills, the tools, the stamina gained by hunting with your father, and now the final piece--tools made to kill. You will in fact become a real Katniss." At first she smiled and took the gift. My wife and I had about a twenty minute serious conversation on breaking the fourth wall. Knowing I will see her within a few days when she makes my coffee, I asked her to discuss this issue with her boy friend and her father. She agreed it was a good idea. I have a very good guess on what will happen. It's one thing to swing around a plastic lightsaber when standing in line for movie tickets. It's quite another to throw a real punch, deliberately put a man on his back in violent confrontation in a saloon, and now being in possession of tools that can easily take life. My guess is that her perspective will change over the next few days.
I agree. My intent was to provide some info for the 'mental game' of dealing with some very serious concerns. I mentioned "Fight Club." Some kids actually formed such clubs. And when Rambo II came out, the sales of archery equipment skyrocketed. In the BSG offshoot called 'Razor,' a cheap folder costing about eight bucks was sold out by just about all vendors. Everyone wants a touch of fame, even if they have to buy it. This barista is a good, hard working young woman putting herself through college the old fashioned way. She's worth the time, trouble and expense to mentor. And she knows it. Several of the baristas go to a shooting club with their fathers, and it's a great idea. You get to learn without being preached at. I've seen something, however. Some guys talk about guns like they were video game equipment. Then you hand them a real one that they use in some shoot-em-up X-Box romp. Their mood changes, and it should.
A safety course is a must. The NRA has a good one or did when I was a teen. Being shot isn't pleasant and luckily only the tip of my finger got cut off.
Good example. At 2:00AM one morning, tired and a bit distracted, I had just finished polishing the edge of a caping knife (google that) and it did a perfect 180 out of my hand and stuck in the top of my left foot. Now, you and I both survived. My wound hit the exact spot on my foot where the only thing that got seriously injured was my pride. My wife and I now joke about the incident. However, you cannot "recall" a shot once it's been fired, or a real-deal Katniss arrow once launched. BTW, I've seen the snippet where she shoots the apple out of a roasted pig. Now, imagine if she was just a bit more angry, feeling a tad more angst, or just a dollop more vindictiveness over the potential loss of her little sister. I have a little brother. And being the angry young man I once was with limited exposure to mentors during that time period, I wouldn't have shot for the apple. I would have fired, and then reloaded, and fired again. And it would have been to more 'serious' targets. 'Serious' is the word here. There are serious consequences in real life. A story we discuss in this forum is one thing, the temperance needed in life is borne of life lessons. I hope I taught one.
Have a little brother and two older half brothers. The oldest died a couple years back. But we were all fairly good shots. The oldest shot a bob cat in mid air as it was about to hit my other half brother. We used to get a lot of practice.
I don't quite understand; if she is already a practiced archer, and I assume cognizant of the responsibilities of a shooting game, how will having these arrows warp her into hurting herself or others? Don't people hang such hobbyist tools on walls for display rather than actually use them?
You bring up a salient point. What is operating here is that we are connecting an item to an act, in this case a violent act. Let me give you an analogy. When I was still shooting prairie dogs, my favorite rifle was a bolt action 22-250. With quality components and a little time I could drive a .224 bullet at 3600 FPS, and at 200 yards drop it through the mouth opening of a soda can. No one made any macabre connection to anything with that rifle. However, I also had a heavy barreled AR-15. It fired the identical .224 bullet at somewhere around 2800 FPS, and its groups were more tthe size of a golf ball. It was also a varmint rifle. The problem is that an AR-15 looks like an M16 and everyone thinks of these tools as "combat weapons." In other words, it's not the performance, after all, the weaker rifle is the one they fear. The ESEE broadheads I gave to this girl are survivalist tools. They are just well made, purposeful implements. Tools like these, and just about every high-end folder I sell, can slice through a kevlar vest--and quite easily. These tools represent the ability to hit back, take life, and they give the owner a layer of power and options over hostile situations the average person does not have.. After all, if I told you that this Katniss-clone was in your neighborhood and about to extract revenge from you for something you did, would you blow off the threat by saying, "Well, it's just a glorified hunting implement."
Got an update for you. I understand it, but I don't. I went to the coffee bar yesterday, and the barista who served me is one of the couple's friends outside work. We discussed these circumstances, and the girl replied, "Well, didn't you see her comments on her FaceBook page? She thinks this is cool!" Not wanting to hold up the line, I didn't explain to her that I'm not on FaceBook. I'm on enough task-force lists. But her point is germane to the issue. I consider this a teaching moment. Whether I was successful or not is immaterial in the long run. You can't look at the idea of being a mentor as a sure-fire way to demonstrate values. Some seeds fall on fertile ground, some don't. It doesn't mean you stop sowing. Perhaps the girl and guy told their friends the issue from their point of view and I am misunderstanding the epithet 'cool.' I'll follow-up. This morning over breakfast my wife smirked. She mentioned my own youth and rebellion. She said, "Did you ever listen? When your elders said, 'Tourist, this is dangerous piece of hardware,' what was your response?" I shrugged, "Well, I looked up at the fudd and answered, 'How do I make it go'....?"
Then it becomes work, and I got a bad feeling about tomorrow. Pretty cool gift you gave her. I am shore she appreciated
Eh, I sell and service higher end cutlery. The distributer that I use also sells ESEE. The money was the minor part. Sometimes my wife and I see younger folks with good values who intend to work hard and be good guys. We want to help them. (My wife is a teacher, and I really screwed up the first half of my life, so a "teaching moment" is important to us.) The arrowheads are out of the realm of target equipment. Their odd construction is more in the end-of-the-world survivalist genre. It's been my experience that holding implements makes a stronger statement.
The best mentors I've met have a particular skill, be that in the martial arts (or any sport), academia, the arts, religion, leadership, or anything that has strong application in the real world. They not only possess a high ability to perform but to teach it, also, and have amassed some sort of following over the years. These are the kind of people who, generally, have learned something unique about life and themselves. They've developed true self acceptance, wisdom, and patience, and have proved their worth as a 'special' type of person. These are those rare individuals you see who are never going out of their way to criticize people. Generally these people don't have to reach out to others to 'mentor' them. Other's flock to them. They possess a strong magnetism and calm that attracts people, and you can sense that they want nothing in return, maybe just money. These are the type of people who should be mentoring strangers. Age in itself is not enough. Take a twenty year old clown and age him 20 years and what do you got? A 40 year old clown. Of course, everyone has a chance to be a mentor when it comes to their own children. Keep in mind that by skill, I mean something lofty that one has trained, and at some point excelled, in for decades, not selling stocks or installing software. That's not to say those professions are not something to be proud of (we should all have them), but they really say nothing about you standing out as an individual.
The woman made my coffee today, and we spoke on her break. She did think about the implications, and had a long chat with her father. Now, both of them are hunters and target shooters. But by her own admission she is a 'meat hunter.' She does not hunt for trophies or revenge. She told me that she is thinking of getting a glass case, and putting them on display. She makes it sound like one of life's touch-stones to deeper thinking. She did admit that if a survival scenario presented itself, the two arrowheads would go into her BOB bag. Overall, I think this was a mature outcome, and I like her thought process. Especially where she included her father into the discussion. Oh, I did give her and her boy friend some Bear Grylls folders. They are not weapons, but wilderness camping tools. They are those kind of mature young people.
