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It's not a hopeful or upbeat wish.
It's not wishing a life of bliss and ease.
It's actually a curse, of sorts.
It was coined by some British politician in the 1930s, who pretended it was a translation of some ancient Chinese proverb, but the phrase was being used ironically as things weren't so great in those times.
I think about that saying a lot, especially the last few days.
In the last week, I've been hearing a lot of disturbing news.
To be clear, I don't watch regular TV. I don't even know if I can access the local news stations, and so I don't watch the news.
I'm aware that there's a lot of shit happening in the world. There's a lot of turmoil right now. The political climate is more volatile than usual. There's a lot of unrest, socially, civically, economically, environmentally.
We're definitely living in the proverbial "interesting times."
I spent a lot of years blogging and writing about some eventual, impending event (I honestly believed I would see a total, complete collapse) that would plunge the entire world into darkness. I didn't want it, for sure, but I was trying to mentally and physically prepare my family in the event that this TEOTWAWKI that was being predicted by us fringe-preppers actually did come to fruition.
A decade and a half after I started writing about all of it, we're still pretty much the same culture as we were. Maybe a little darker. A little more fearful.
So, when the world's governments started cautioning their citizenry to be prepared over the last week, I sat up.
What?
This initiative is being called "FORTRESS" - Federal Operations for Resiliency, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability.
The government likes their acronyms.
I guess what really disturbs me, as a Veteran, especially, is that the government is preparing our soldiers - not just the ones who are overseas, maybe in hostile places, but the ones here, on US soil also - to be ready for long-term disruptions. Like are they planning to close the bases? No access on or off? What about the families who live on the economy? It's very disturbing.
These are warnings that some of us had been hearing in the prepper community over a decade ago. We were all called crazy, tinfoil hat wearing loonies, and conspiracy-theorists. Fear-mongers.
But, at least for me, it wasn't about spreading crazy ideas or trying to promote some unlikely end-of-the-world event. It really was all about being ready for whatever life threw at us.
A global pandemic with forced quarantine.
These things happened, but never, even in the midst or aftermath of these crazy happenings, did world or US government officials tell us that we should be prepared. Like, REALLY, tell us.
The UK has recently launched the Be Ready Campaign, which urges the Brits to have supplies on hand so that they can self-sufficient for three days without outside assistance during service disruptions. The idea, in part, is to ensure that the emergency services aren't overwhelmed by distress calls from people who need basic supplies that they could have had stored in their homes.
Worldwide there are over thirty countries which are urging their citizens to do the same - to be prepared to be self-sufficient for a minimum of three days, but better would be to be ready for a week to ten days of self-preservation. Including: almost all of Europe, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Japan.
Food.
Water.
Heat.
Something seems to be happening. Something no one is telling us.
For me, that's the worst part - the half telling. Like seeing a nest of bees and telling those nearby to be careful of flying insects, but not telling them what flying insects they should be careful of, or why.
The warnings are more like suggestions, a precaution, just in case, but coming from the government (or not, as is the case here in the US), it's a little disconcerting.
What don't we know? What's going on behind the curtain ...?!?
I do understand not wanting to cause mass panic, but there has to be more information sharing than just, "Oh, by the way, you might want to be prepared to survive alone without any outside support for up to two weeks."
All that said that said, I guess the real question, for me, is to wonder why we haven't all been prepared all along. There's always been the possibility, but not just the POSSIBILITY, but the reality of shit-hitting-the-fan, and in some cases, there was no outside help, because there was no outside help. Those emergency resources had been destroyed, too.
See the links above.
There's always some shit-hitting-the-fan somewhere, and those who fare the best are those who never fully relied on outside help, but decided early on that they could take care of themselves. Those who have a plan - just in case. Or those who just live that way, because being self-reliant is empowering.
Like being young, incredibly healthy, and having access to really good food and clean water, but having medical insurance, anyway. Probably won't need it, but just in case ...
Just.
In.
Case.
I spent over a decade writing about preparedness. In 2019, when my life seemed to be pivoting in a different direction, being one of the ones sounding the clarion call no longer seemed to be what I needed to be doing. I guess I started to feel like it no longer mattered.
My kids were mostly grown.
Deus Ex Machina was focusing on his career.
I was no longer self-employed and was working outside the home for the first time in twenty years.
The collapse we'd been preparing for never happened, and our lives were changing.
I closed my blog and tried concentrating my energy on other stuff.
But I was still prepared.
My pantry is usually pretty well stocked with stuff we actually eat.
We're still heating with wood.
I still have a wash tub in the back yard and an antique clothes wringer in my bathroom, because I think it's cool.
But, when I hear the governments all over the world are telling their citizens to be ready, for something (they're aren't saying what), and our own government looks like it might be working on making our military bases self-sufficient fortresses, I started looking more closely at where I'm at.
And I think, mostly, we'll be okay.
We can definitely survive for three days in a grid-down scenario. I mean, honestly, we've (sort of) done it before, when we lost power, during the winter, for almost a week, on several occasions. We'd probably be okay for a couple of weeks, although we'd probably get sick of "farm-girl baths" (that is, baths using water heated on the woodstove and poured into the wash tub :)), and I'd miss my all-in-one washing machine.
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The following are not affiliate links. I get nothing if you click on one of them and order one of the products.
I'm sharing these products, because water is necessary for life, and clean water is second only to shelter in a full blown survival situation. The following are some alternatives to stockpiling expensive and difficult to store bottled water that has an expiration date.
All of these products are used by hikers or for camping trips where one may not find drinkable water, but having one at home, just in case is a lot cheaper than buying cases of bottled water, especially if one lives near fresh water (like a pond or a babbling brook right behind their house) or one has a rain barrel set-up (or a place to set-up rain barrels).
And if one decides to go on a long camping trip or needs to climb Mt. Katahdin for a wedding at the top, one has a water filter!
Win-win.
The importance of access to clean water can't be overemphasized. Without water, we die. Period.
In my preparedness, I've always tried to think beyond the "stocking up" model. I've always asked myself, and then what? What happens when I run out of the stuff I've stored? Then, what do I do? The solution, for me, wasn't to just stock up, but rather to have skills and tools. A water filter is a tool.
Self-sufficiency is more than just having a stockpile. There's so much more. We'll talk more about that ... later.
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What do you think about the warnings?
Do you feel prepared?
