Smiling back at the Big Bad Wolf

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Robert Heinlein

We are never more than about 72 hours from a descent into chaos and lawlessness - the rapid collapse of peaceful norms that most of us take for granted. Sometimes it happens much faster. (See related story, page 1).

The intense media coverage of catastrophes, from earthquakes to hurricanes, from forest fires and tornados to civil unrest, or the rapid spread of infectious disease, should remind us of the extreme fragility of our complex systems, and our own exposure in the face of calamity. Major disruptions in the delivery of fuel, or food, or medicines, or the inability to access critical emergency care, can spiral quickly, and the effects ripple out less like a rock tossed into a pond than an iceberg calved into a shallow bay.

I'm not suggesting we succumb to any particular paranoia of the day - and there are plenty of those - that everyone rush out and buy gas masks, stockpile potassium iodide, or build an EMP bunker in the yard. I am suggesting that we roll back the creeping tide of dependency and spend a few easy minutes thinking about our capacity for self-reliance, for building resilience in the face of adversity, those old-timey notions of being responsible for ourselves, by ourselves - and then to do something about it.

A working knowledge of basic first aid, and the inexpensive supplies to administer it, can go a very long way. Learn CPR. Have a water filter that works. Learn to grow and preserve things. Know how to skin a buck, or gut a fish. Buy a few extra batteries. Be fit enough to carry something heavy for a few yards.

Exploit your second amendment rights and purchase a firearm, then learn how, and when, to use it appropriately. Have the means to stay warm. If you require medicines, talk to your doctor about having an extra supply, just in case.

Be realistic about what things you actually need, and how much of it you might require in an extended emergency when no deliveries of fuel or food, or the restoration of power are on the horizon.

The goal is to be reasonably self-sufficient, to be resilient because we have prepared, and to avoid further taxing emergency services that are often over-burdened on normal days.

It doesn't take much more than mindset to get started, an acceptance that bad things can and do happen, and that we have options in our response.

So let's take a page from the CrossFit mindset and prepare for the "unknown and the unknowable." And let's not be selfish, either. In any event, even a small one on the scale of potential disaster scenarios, there are those among us who will desperately need our help. Children, the elderly, and the infirm will need us to be at our very best, willing and prepared to offer a helping hand because we have planned ahead and refused to be victimized

ourselves.

There will be some who turn in on themselves, preferring to barricade, to sandbag their castles, to horde their material or expertise. Problem is, nobody wins a siege, and parading around the ramparts, refusing to help or to share with our neighbors in a cataclysm, is a disgusting

notion.

Something tells me that the people of Sisters Country will be at their very best in the face of such an event, and a glance at a recent Nugget News headline seems to confirm it: seven-and-a-half tons of food donated to local food bank. That's a big deal, folks, and a very loud statement about our community mindset, and what we might expect of our neighbors in tough times.

We have no way of knowing when the big bad wolf of natural disaster or general tribulation will strike, but if it does - when it does - and if we have prepared ahead of time, doing those little things now when it is easy, we might sit comfortably on our porches while he stalks the yard, smiling back at him as he huffs and puffs, because we know he can't possibly blow our house down.