Stop, or I'll...

When we live outside societal norms—in a van, a tent, a squat, a shack in the wilderness—we can develop a heightened sense of vulnerability. If it’s easy for us to grab everything we own and leave, it’s also easy for someone else to grab all our stuff.

As a result, some of us are armed. And some of us threaten potential troublemakers with signs like this:

While I understand the sentiment, it’s troubling. Really? You’d kill someone over pots and pans and a sleeping bag? Sadly, some people would. Some people have. Some people have killed over far less. Over words. Or looks. Or imagined words or looks.

However, if you read the sign differently, there’s an opposite meaning I hope is intentional. Rather than nothing here being worth you losing your life over, it's that nothing here is worth me taking your life to defend it.