Certainty

There is only one thing certain in this life: death and taxes and both are on the rise. As for security, after a few years of prepping and "trying to prepare" we've realized we've done all we reasonably can. What comes will come and we'll see how well we're able to adapt. Notice, I said adapt. I think that's the real key to survival. Hopefully we'll continue to live with one another here in our little spot of earth. But adapt we have and adapt we will continue to do. I'm not talking adapting to FEMA camps, swine flu vaccines and a few other possibilities. I'm talking adapt to higher prices, strange weather patterns, desperate or despondent people, illness and aging, family dynamics, crop failure, etc.

I still read the blogs and pass on info to Sweetie; I still rotate stock in our preps; we still garden and preserve food. We still stack firewood and reuse, recycle or do without. The doing without seems to occur more often now, mostly intentionally because we've put off some things long enough that we've lost interest in them.

There's an air of desperation or delusion in most people we encounter. Either their heads are still in the sand or they've medicated themselves to the point of not feeling anything. Their lives are a blur; that purple haze one experiences with drugs and alcohol. But their sadness and hopelessness returns the next day and they're angry and/or depressed. And their self imposed funk continues...

The desperate people are first in line at the food pantries; complain about what they're given; spend recklessly and then call every do-gooder agency and church in the area for help; and tell anyone who'll listen that life isn't fair and everyone else gets the advantages. The desperate also steal anything not bolted or chained down and fenced in. They approach people who are pushing their shopping cart to their car and ask them to share. They pick up cans and exchange them for cigarettes or booze and stand on the street corners looking bored. Meanwhile at home their children go hungry; their utilities get shut off; and their vehicles are jacked up with various mechanical ailments. Yet, if offered a cash-paying job doing some manual labor; they feel the distance is too far; the pay is too little; the day is hot; or the work is too much.

And sacrifice, good old fashioned sacrifice of the kind their grandparents most certainly practiced - and maybe their parents did - is a foreign concept. We're as poor as most of these people, if not poorer, and we've sacrificed to have a full pantry, a piece of land, a garden (try weeding while pushing a walker or planting while being attacked by deer flies and hornets), a little stash of cash and firearms and ammo, and a 1972 boat (thought it was '76) that is our ONE luxury - other than the internet which is dial up at $5 for the first six months and $10 thereafter.

I'm as disillusioned by "the common folk" as I am by the Fedgov, the Wall Street crooks, the politicians and the military. I suppose it's because I see what's coming and still feel for those who will struggle or perish when they didn't have to. The pain of our own ignorance and neglect and waste, empty slogans and political propaganda, and flag waving and "take care of me" attitude is unfolding across this land. And despite our blogs and beliefs and prayers and preps it's going to continue to unfold. I think it's destiny, set in motion long ago.

Guess this is kind of a rambling post but it's where my mind is today. So chew on it awhile and go on with your day. Treesong