«-- Letter Re: Caustic Chlorine Troubles, and Using Dry Chlorine for Water Treatment | Main | Note from JWR: --»
The ABCs of WTSHTF, by Mark B.
The ABCs of When the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF.)
aren’t what you have prepared, acquired or stowed but even more basic
in the preparation processes that we sometimes take for granted.
The A is the ability to learn, to adapt and to try. No matter how
many classes we take or how much we have stored away there is the potential
that we might have missed something or prepared for one scenario and ended
up with another. We may be in the middle of TEOTWAWKI and
not be fully ready but guess what, we aren’t scheduling it. Ability is
not only applying something that we’ve learned but troubleshooting or
working through something that we don’t have a clue about. We may not
get it right the first time that we try something new but we have the ability
to learn from our mistakes and go back to try again. We have the ability to
learn from others mistakes and we have the ability to make changes or corrections
that work for our scenario.
The B is the brains that we have to reason with to store our morals
our life lessons and the memories that make us who we are. The best tool that
we have at our disposal is our brain. So many people in day to day life just
go on auto pilot and don’t think about what they can do to improve how
they do something. In my line of work I hear that “I’ve done
it that way for 20 years”. My response is that you’ve been doing
it wrong for 20 years. We just get in the habit of doing things a certain way.
We eat our meals at the same time even if we aren’t hungry just because
it is the time we are conditioned to eat. We go to bed at a certain time and
we get up at a certain time. As a culture we have stopped utilizing what we
were born with. In my opinion that is a large part of why we are where we are
today. The sheep just keep waiting for someone to lead them or fall prey to
the ones that use their brains without the use of morals. If we just think
about what we are about to do instead of just doing it we can prevent personal
injury or emotional pain. A simple example would be when a loved one has done
something that upset you and you just respond without thinking of how it would
affect them or why they did it the way they did. The words are already spoken;
you can’t take them back, or you’re cutting something with a knife
and slice your finger or hand because you didn’t think about what you
were doing. We should try to learn and practice as much as possible so it will
at least be familiar if not second nature but if we haven’t seen or done
it before it is still doable because we can reason and solve problems. The
human race has faced challenges for thousands of years and we have always improved
because we have the ability to think.
The C stands for two things, first is choice. Most of the dialog that
I’ve seen on SurvivalBlog shows that we have made a choice to
not be led into a place where we no longer have a choice.
We all are at different stages in the process but our choice is to survive
whatever we are dealt. The choice is yours for all situations, you may not
be able to control the overall aspect but you make the choice of how you let
it affect you. Have you ever been driving and had someone cut you off? You
don’t have control over the other driver but you do have the ability
to make the choice of letting the incident infuriate you or brushing the whole
situation off. We all make choices of whom if anyone will be invited into our
confidence or where our retreat will be. We make the choice of what type of
armament we will utilize or the type of food we will store or grow. Some things
are dependent on location or availability but it is still a choice. Our choices
are a large part of what makes us who we are. The choice to have faith, the
choice to be ready, and the choice to have morals are some choices that most
of us here have made. Remember that no matter what the influences are the final
choice is the one that you make. Right, wrong or indifferent it’s the
choice that you will have to live with.
The second C is composure, always maintain your composure. If you
keep your wits about you then you stand a better chance of surviving the situation.
When you lose your composure you lose your ability to reason and react rationally.
In an emergency situation time is critical and if you remain calm you will
have a higher probability of doing it right the first time. In an emergency
situation maintaining your composure could mean the difference between life
and death. I don’t mean you have to become cold or callous but you can
deal with your emotions after the situation subsides. If you don’t maintain
your composure you might not get that chance.
I would like to thank my brothers in arms from all the services; they have
helped me learn these lessons and have given me the opportunity to use what
I was born with and strived to refine it and help it grow.
Remember that we started out without clothes and shelter. We started out without
the ability to communicate over great distances without traveling them. We
can now travel and communicate in space or around the planet all because we
use our ability, our brains and by the choices that we make.
In my opinion we should absolutely continue to learn, store and prepare. We
should choose who we will coexist with before, during and after the coming
collapse, we should do that even if the collapse doesn’t come during
our lifetime. We should continue to grow as an individual and as a group. We
should not over analyze the solution to whatever problem we face. We should
not assume failure if we missed something or we didn’t get the opportunity
to get everything that we wanted. We should be thankful for what we have. We
should remember how far we have come. We should use our brain to think the
solution through. We should use our ability to reason and we should stay calm
to prevail.
I have learned a great deal since I started reading SurvivalBlog and utilizing
the links and resources available here. It has provoked the thought process
of things that I hadn’t thought of or had a different approach about
something.
There are many things that the survivalist practices that have become a lost
art so to speak such as canning and the ability to survive without modern conveniences.
We are in a society that does not know how to function without cell phones
and computers but I can remember when we didn’t have them. We communicated
either by land line telephone or my goodness how archaic, snail mail. Farther
back in our history there was the Pony Express and even couriers.
[The author of the] Heartbreak Ridge [screenplay (James Carabatsos)]
stated it best:" Improvise,
adapt and overcome."
