The 5 W’s of Every Day Carry #1 - Why
Daily we are faced with challenges, both predictable and unexpected. “Every Day Carry”, or EDC, is a term used to describe the tools a person keeps on hand to overcome these challenges when they arise. These challenges can be highly specific to your personal context, like a mechanic requiring a specialized tool. Or, they can be something that lots of people face daily, such as needing to communicate with your significant other or family while at work. This series will provide answers and insight into the critical questions of Every Day Carry: The 5 “W’s” of Every Day Carry: Why, Who, When, Where, and What. To start, we need to consider the most important question of EDC: Why?
The tools you carry with you provide Capability, Reliability, and Speed™.
Some tools make it POSSIBLE to overcome challenges that would otherwise be insurmountable. An example of this is a cell phone. In many situations it gives you communication capabilities that are otherwise not available. With it you can call your family and let them know you will be late for dinner because of traffic. Or, you can call for an ambulance in the case of a medical emergency. Without a cell phone you have severely limited communication abilities. You could easily find yourself in a situation where it is simply not possible to communicate with anyone outside of shouting distance.
Tools also provide reliability. High quality tools used appropriately will act in a consistent and reliable way. Having reliable equipment allows you to accurately assess your capabilities and maneuver challenges accordingly. An example of this would be the contrast between a high quality knife and a low quality knife. With a high quality knife, you know that it will not prematurely dull and will be able to perform tasks without risk of breaking. With a low quality knife, you will face accelerated tool degradation and unexpected failures that reduce your capabilities, or even exacerbate the challenges you face.
In addition to capability and reliability, tools provide speed. Although some challenges can be overcome through improvised solutions, improvisation is less reliable and often requires a significant investment in time. Although improvisation is an important skill, relying solely on it can lead to unnecessary negative outcomes and wasted time. Having the proper tools for a job can turn a nightmare job into a breeze, which anyone who has spent time working on cars will know. Some challenges that could be encountered may not have a time constraint, but having the correct tools can still be a valuable convenience that allows time and effort to be conserved. Other challenges can have drastic repercussions if not addressed quickly. An example of this would be an injury requiring the application of a tourniquet. The Department of Homeland Security has published that death from bleedout can occur in a matter of minutes in the case of a traumatic injury. For an injury on an appendage, a high quality tourniquet can reliably stop bleeding extremely quickly. When the challenge you are facing has such severe consequences and is dependent on such a short timeline, having tools that allow you to solve the problem as quickly as possible is extremely important.
So, WHY have Every Day Carry tools? Because no matter who you are, you will be faced with challenges that you need to overcome on a daily basis. The challenge could be as simple as getting a new toy out of the plastic blister packaging for your kids, or it could be as severe as a traumatic injury caused by a car crash. In any case, the tools you have with you can give you enhanced capabilities to reliably and quickly overcome the challenges you encounter on a day-to-day basis.
Get up, gear up, get after it™
~ Eric