When All Hell Breaks Loose (13 page)

W
hat one wants is not always what one needs. The effects of modern civilization and the luxuries it offers intoxicates the senses and makes the task of deciding what your family needs difficult. It's virtually impossible to focus on what is required as the mind is pulled this way and that with the pure over stimulation of Madison Avenue and all the crap they say you must purchase to become a fulfilled and happy human being. After all, the easiest way to sell your wares is to appeal to a potential consumer's fear, ego, or ignorance.

As mentioned earlier in this book, our town, to its credit, had several town meetings regarding the Y2K crisis. I attended every meeting that I could, fascinated with the public display of disaster preparation and human drama. The majority of these town meetings consisted of a panel of several individuals. Each person represented a key element of what most people thought was important if the grid went down. There was the guy from the power company, one from the water department and sanitation treatment plant, a communications person, a representative from one of the local grocery stores, a couple of people I've since forgotten, and a financial planner. After each gave their monologues, the real fun began and the panel was open for questions from the fidgety, sweaty audience. In all the town meetings I attended, more than 85 percent of the questions were directed toward the financial planner! To hell with food, water, having a safe place to take a dump so the kids don't die of dysentery, or finding out if Aunt Mabel's dead in Duluth, Minnesota, as long as our investments are safe—silly, silly people. At the very least, if your investments are on paper, you'll have something extra to wipe your butt with. Enjoy!

Sacred Simplicity

You are directly responsible for your life. Through free will, you are the directing intelligence through your heart, and what you think, feel, and hold your attention to is what you become. One of the most challenging things you may need to accomplish is to psychologically download into your loved ones the power of doing more with less. Your entire survival plan—from physical preparation to riding out the storm itself and helping your neighbors along the way—can be made easier by keeping your outlook on the situation as simple as possible. The fewer moving parts the better, in your mind and in your toilet. Moving parts, literally and figuratively, leave options for elements of the unknown—the origin of fear—to breed and manifest.

Americans in general, but especially my generation and younger, are spoiled rotten. We are incredibly self-centered and used to getting our own way, and we have a tantrum if we don't. A big crisis is our e-mail being down for a day. Many have moved far from center on what life is all about and what is truly required to live and be happy. If you or someone you love is a slave to materialism, it can jeopardize your survival plan. If a loved one can't live without their hairdryer or other luxuries after the grid takes a dump, they're in for a rude awakening—as are you. The lack of electricity might cause them to have an emotional meltdown during an emergency. I strongly recommend that you have a family powwow about basic values as they pertain to the grid coming down and the lack of conveniences that will occur. It's best not to have this conversation around a single lit candle during a blackout—don't learn to swim when the boat is already sinking.

The quickest way to find out what you need to live in any situation is to go without. If you sat down anywhere in the world with only the clothes on your back, you would quickly conceptualize what is needed for your survival from your current environment, or you would die. In fact, the priorities of your survival would come to you. First, you would seek to eliminate whatever condition brought discomfort to your body. If it's too cold or too hot, you would need shelter. After this challenge was met, another would surface that would require attention and so on down the line. Mother Nature, coupled with the fact that you possess a physical body in a physical world, mandate what is required for your overall survival and comfort.

In like manner, the tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets around the world deal with life the same way, at least at first. They find out quickly what is needed to live through discomfort, improvising their needs from their surroundings. As being uncomfortable is a drag, they take their destiny a step further and seek to get their needs met before the need arises, exploiting the concept of
advance preparation
. Many homeless people are extremely good at procuring from an urban environment what is needed to live. Their lack of amenities has honed their awareness about what is required to sustain life. Am I saying that you have to live in the woods or on the streets to figure out what your family needs during troubled times? No. But it would give you a worldview on gratitude and appreciation that you would never forget. In any event, I've done both so you don't have to.