I had this discussion recently. Put it this way; CPF attracts a certain kind of people, and I dare say the better kind of people (look at all the folks stepping up to the plate to help others - you know what I mean, each and every day). I'll also take it that the initial post was made in a lighthearted manner, so don't take mine any more seriously than it was meant to be. It's just a reminder that it's better to have, than not to have.
We have a taste for the best and we carry it with us in whatever we do. We see tools as enablers and we place value in them. After all, if we were that capable "out of the box" there would be no need for tools.
I've been working with computers for longer than I can remember and the bitter irony is that it never occured to me to carry a screwdriver. I forget the millions of times I've had to BEG for screwdrivers on location. Again, there have also been millions of times where I could have used a light, instead I worked 'blind' and in fact got good at it. I could place connectors consistently and accurately just by feel. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif
Today, it's the Leatherman Squirt P4 as EDC and the Wave as backup for the bigger jobs. E1e+KL1 and SF Digital Ultra as main lights. And guess what.. ever since I started carrying, I somehow have never needed them. Murphy has it in for me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif so yes, I carry them to solve a problem, and I'm quite sure the very day I STOP carrying, I WILL end up needing them all in dire circumstances. Life is like that, yaknow.
We like to take responsibility for ourselves and what we do, which agreed, is not something everybody is prepared to do. Round here, the sheeple would very much prefer to pin 100% responsibility on the authorities, complaining round the clock why the public service is not doing enough to protect them from everything ranging from dripping water to the bogeymen under the bed. Even though I truly respect the work of those who make it their job to protect others (and the sheeple, despite EXPECTING them to do it, don't appreciate it in the slightest) I would rather have the capability to do something about it, if it so happened I was the only person on the scene who could. How many precious minutes must be lost between calling for backup and waiting for it to arrive? Must we wait to be stuck in a toilet with our pants down, in the middle of a blackout with the TP holder empty before we are ready to do something about it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif
Maybe I shouldn't laugh, this situation's happened to someone I know and guess WHO had spare lights.