Natural bright red hair that brightens more through long exposure to sunlight and an abundance of freckles all display mine and my brother’s Irish ancestry. The height and heavy bone structure come from the German side. Growing up, little old ladies would stop my mother at the park or the store to compliment her children’s coloring and kids in school would debate what color my hair actually was (orange was the popular choice).
red hair close up. creative commons license
The hair being the first thing one notices about us, we grew up with lots of positive attention around our ginger locks. I don’t think my brother cared too much about it, but I’m a girl so I was proud and even a bit vain about my hair during the nightmare teenage years. I got through the awkwardness by picking one thing I liked about my appearance and focusing on that.
One day in middle school, we got to sit down and watch an anti-bullying video about harmful stereotypes. Don’t remember much of it now, but this was the first time I had heard anything about many stereotypes cited in the video as harmful. Things like; Asians are good at math and the black kid has to play basketball. What I vividly remember was the redheaded boy who complained that his classmates would tease him for having no soul or ask him if he had one because of his red hair.
One needs to understand this stereotype did not exist in my world before watching this video. I didn’t hear it in public, didn’t hear it in school, didn’t hear in around the catholic church my family went to. If someone had asked me the above before watching this video, my response all unknowing of the insult to my appearance would have been along the lines of “do you have a brain?” And it would have been the perfect way to handle such a stupid question. But it never happened.
Even as a kid, I had the sense this was typical of the well-intentioned, perpetuating harmful stereotypes in the name of stopping harmful stereotypes. That sense has only grown in the years since as every special interest group in the USA vies for public attention on their struggles, while perpetuating many of their own difficulties.
This is just a little personal story. But I feel it speaks to the need to occasionally let things be instead of amplifying negativity in the name of awareness. As a shy teen, hearing the jokes was embarrassing. As a confident adult I’ve circled back to, “Haters, eat your jealous hearts out.”
It’s 2022 and we’re coming out of nearly 3 years of a global pandemic with more questions than certainties. After two years of fear and lock downs, supply chains are disrupted, and inflation is on the rise while citizens of nearly every western country are taking to the streets protesting the lingering restrictions. The Russians are in a conflict with Ukraine, NATO and the US contributing in a less than helpful way which may result in World War III in our lifetimes. Countries are imposing sanctions on each other while fossil fuel prices rise, and all these green energy replacements seem to cost more environmentally and financially than they are capable of offsetting. Sounds like the opening of a nineties disaster movie.
Now that we’ve set the scene, everyone should understand the need to be prepared to get oneself and one’s family through trying times ahead. For this we can take a lot of lessons from our ancestors in trying times like the great depression and put-up supplies that will more than likely be needed in the future. Not too long ago, there was stigma around being a “prepper” those people everyone thought were crazy who would go out to dig a hidden shelter in the woods with years of food stockpiled. A bugout bag in the car an essential accessory at all times. These people are now looking smarter by the day.
We don’t really need to go to the extreme of bugout shelters and multi-year stockpiles but, having the means to survive without a grocery store for a few weeks to a few months would be wise. FEMA has found more people are aware of their risk factors and seeking information on how to become prepared. Conversely, the percentage of respondents to the survey who consider themselves “prepared” and are maintaining that status has remained flat since 2007. This could be a result of decision paralysis, three different sources say three different things, so what do you do? So the goal is to make a simplified starting point and logical progression based on my own research and experience making preparations.
FEMA recommends storing a two-week supply of water for your family, as much as you can if you don’t have the space for 14 gallons per person. Having some means of filtering and sterilizing water would be best for this. Also, having a supply of food which will last 2-3 months would be a great start for most. There are companies which specialize in MRE style emergency rations, which may be an ideal option depending on the individual’s financial and storage capabilities. If that’s not feasible or just to supplement that stock, we can rely on the wisdom of our ancestors who were able to get through hundreds of years of what we would consider “hard times.”
Consider how to prioritize preparations. If you’re preparing for a disaster that might require moving, easily portable supplies will be needed. Those of us preparing for high inflation and economic recession like we saw in the great depression will have a bit more flexibility. We can consider that we’re unlikely to fully lose the means of food production, even if it becomes difficult to move food and supplies between places quickly. Things that are local and in-season will be easiest to obtain. Avocados for example, might be off the menu for most of the US in the relatively near future with many other food products from Mexico to follow. Going to local farmers markets would help to build a community network to get supplies in the event of scarcity. There are other considerations besides food and water as well.
Stock your pantry. Learn to preserve food and get the equipment necessary to do so, this could be canning, fermenting, freeze-drying, curing, or dehydrating. Freeze-drying and dehydrating require large machines, so they are a higher investment of money and storage space than other methods. Fermenting foods is going to require the least space and initial investment of money with just the jars and a fermentation starter. Any food item which can be preserved instead of wasted will put everyone in a better position during periods of deprivation.
Storing canned and dry goods is an essential part of stocking the pantry. Canned goods can last 2-5 years for best quality. Commercial cans and jars will have a use-by date stamp for optimum quality but can be eaten long after. In an emergency, calories can often be more important than nutrition so shelf-life, not peak quality, is priority. All purpose flour can be stored for 6-8 months while wheat berries can be stored for multiple years. Dry beans will store for a year and lentils are the same. Dry goods like grains have been the staples of traditional diets for thousands of years for a reason, they store for long periods, absorb water to increase volume when cooked, and can be processed into many different food items. We can group fats into the dry goods, given they store for very long periods as long as they are kept relatively cool and most breads are a grain flour, a fat, and yeast, with enough liquid added to get doughy consistency and a bit of salt. A good pantry would include grains; wheat, rye, barley, rice, oats, and corn meal. Fats; olive oil, lard, and ghee. As well as common canned goods like tomatoes, corn, beats, carrots, tuna, chicken, and canned salmon. All of these goods require no refrigeration and will stay shelf-stable for a long time.
Note that it’s not enough just to put things in storage for a rainy day, maintenance of the stock requires rotation, and we also need to know how to prepare these items. How long do beans need to soak, what needs to happen so half the rice isn’t left burnt on the bottom of the pot, is a certain food item going to cause a stomachache or digestive problems? These questions we don’t need to be answering for the first time while relying on the stored food for survival. Someone who gets fast food every day is going to have an adjustment period switching to home-prepared food and it will be easier going through this while it can be done gently. This also brings up the point of mood altering or addictive substances. This would include tabaco, alcohol, sugar, and other things considered “vices.” We need to take these things into account because someone who is reliant on addictive substances, such as a pack-a-day-smoker, needs to consider how much of a stock of said substance they will need to avoid or ease withdrawal symptoms in the event they can’t get more for a while or ever. When one is in a survival situation, the jumpiness, irritability, and difficulty concentrating of even mild withdrawal symptoms would be detrimental to one’s chances.
How do we start preparing? The very least everyone can do is pick up an additional can of food or bag of beans on each shopping trip. Panic buying needs to be avoided as it puts unnecessary strain on supply lines and hurts the community. It also leaves the panic buyer with a large stock of something that may expire all at the same time. Building stock gradually allows for saving money and a diversified supply.
Next up, grow something. If you have 10 acres and have been working on your permaculture homestead farm for the past 5 years, awesome, you’re ahead. Most people aren’t in that position but could still help themselves by growing what edibles they can. An apartment dweller with one window could grow some herbs and lettuce in the windowsill, with a balcony is even better, get a couple tomato plants in containers. I would argue that no one is growing all of the food they could simply because people are always coming up with different techniques to maximize yield, but there are also way too many people not growing anything and there’s really no excuse for that considering the number of resources available. Every bit of food we can grow is an inch of independence that will add up over time. It’s a food item we don’t have to wait for the store to bring in and open to go get.
Even in abundant times there are dangers for people to be aware of, when things get hard and you have something someone else wants, it can get very dangerous. Being able to defend oneself should be a core aspect of anyone’s journey to preparedness. This mean physical fitness, having the tools at hand to defend oneself, and the training and mental preparedness to use those tools to defend oneself. Whether we go for lethal or less-than lethal options, there’s a set of knowledge that needs to be acquired to use said options properly. This could mean research, practice, and taking instruction courses until comfortable with the chosen method and competent enough not to pose an unintended danger to friends and family.
Speaking of friends and family, building connections to those emotionally and physically close to us is something we’ve been losing in the digital age. Many people will say they don’t know their own neighbors if asked. My own extended family talks less to each other since we all joined Facebook than ever before. Going outside and interacting with people, visiting the coffee shops, parks, and libraries is how we meet people and build connection over common interests where the liking of the same social media page is a shallow connection with people we’re likely to never meet. Social media can be a powerful tool if used properly, but if used as a substitute for real world interaction, it’s damaging. I would like to see a monthly no-cell-phones day where everyone left their devices at home and got out of the house for multiple hours, I like to dream big. At the very least, everyone should be able to point to someone in their area they could rely on if they need a ride when their car breaks down and be someone that person can rely on in turn. Those are the types of connections which get people through disasters, mental health episodes, and other times of hardship not a list of followers.
To have reliable friends it helps to be a reliable friend, in the same way it helps to have useful skills to trade for the products of other people’s useful skills. No one has ever been able to raise and make everything they need to survive; we rely on other people for what we can’t do ourselves. A person with the ability to utilize tools to build a structure is of more use to the community than a person who knows how to design video games. Not that there’s anything wrong about knowing how to design video games, but we’re able to keep up a demand for a supply of video games because we are living in luxurious times right now. A truly prepared person will have a practical skill set, farming, plumbing, building, making clothes, cooking, and first aid are all tradable, practical skills. These and may others will help a community survive over the long term and some can be developed to an acceptable level as hobbies. We’ve already discussed learning to grow food, a skill which will always be in demand along with the food itself. Diversifying one’s skill set can only lead to better outcomes overall no matter what the future holds.
Wrapping up, our ancestors made it through famines, wars, droughts, plagues, and upheaval or we wouldn’t all be standing here today. Whatever the future holds, learning from the past practical skills, food preservation, building communities, and understanding the principles of self-defense will get us through whatever lies ahead. Hopefully someone finds some use in this little rant to become more prepared for where our societies and governments are taking us.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin.
Speaker's Circle 