SOLVING YOUR WORLD’S PROBLEMS Note, I didn’t say solving THE world’s problems, I said solving YOUR world’s problems.
I used to instruct in Texas Election Law to Republican county chairs and Republican election judges and clerks. Guess what – I’m not talking politics in this article. I do not care if you are Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever.
Neither you nor I can “fix” the world or this country – it’s too far gone.
We can blame this or that political party; we can blame Iran or China or Russia or Greece or Spain. We can blame radical Islamists; we can blame terrorists from any country. We can blame Obama (okay, let’s do that). Obama, however, is just speeding up the inevitable collapse of our country.
Benjamin Franklin correctly saw our nation's destiny when he said, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." From 1776 to 2012 is 236 years. It took that long for us to vote ourselves and others enough money to destroy the country because that money was borrowed and cannot be repaid and we’re spending more than we take in now, so the debt grows larger every day. The country is already bankrupt so we keep borrowing more money to keep the country’s lights on. One day in the not distant future, banks will fail, money cannot be exchanged, and that causes trucks to stop. That is the biggest and most likely threat we face as a country. Within a few days of that happening, people start dying and I don’t want you to be one of them.
You can add other possible destructive happenings like EMP, terror strikes, etc., if you want, but they all lead to the same thing – collapse of the monetary system in the country and no trucks. (I didn’t give you an option of blaming global warming – if you believe that, see me about sea shore property in Arizona.)
If you are going to grieve over the collapse of this great country, do it now. I have already done that by researching where the country is and whether it can survive and I have determined it can’t, and I felt sad about that. How could this country fall, not this country, not this great country. This country is held up by Styrofoam posts and they are sinking in quicksand and it can’t be stopped. I kept reading and thinking until I could accept the fact that this country is over. Historically, no country has stayed on top. I read history to understand why every leading country failed. Over extension of services took Rome down – they were ruling too many countries and over extended, which means not enough money to keep going. The same thing happened to England – they got too big ruling too many countries and over extended themselves. Now, over extension has happened to us – not enough money.
When the country implodes, your world is all that matters. The rest of the world will keep doing something but we don’t care at that time because our private daily world needs to keep going IN A GOOD WAY. Yes, a good way.
I do not want you freaking out and depressing yourself. Let’s solve depression right now. Note, I said “depressing yourself”. Unless you have a chemical imbalance in your brain, the only person who can make you depressed, is you. No one can get in your head and punch buttons. Only you can do that, so you are the one in control of your mind. It’s not what happens to you that makes you depressed, it’s what you do in your mind about what happened, that causes you to depress yourself, or not. Since you are in control of your mind, if you want to depress yourself, set a time limit for being depressed. “Do I want to depress myself for a day, or two days, or a week, or a…” Since only you can depress yourself, only you can put a limit on how long you want to depress yourself. See, you have control over your mind and that’s great. I just gave you total control of yourself and that’s a good thing (send $65 for this counseling session - that’s a cut rate from $100).
The point is, you can make YOUR personal world the way you want it to be because you are in control of it – no one else. That is what preps are all about – creating your world when the larger world collapses. You are also prepared for regional disasters from weather or other reasons.
I sit here and look out on my world and it’s working just fine. The bank on the corner is open, people are civil and at their jobs, buying groceries, going to restaurants and movies – everything is just perking along swell. This is normal. You need to think about “not normal” so you won’t be surprised when “not normal” happens.
Many people can’t get past “normalcy”. Mentally, they won’t accept “not normal”, so they cling onto normal and do nothing. If they do nothing, then they mentally stay in normal. To accept “not normal”, is too upsetting for them. These will be the people who have nothing when “not normal” happens. If a physical emergency happens, they will be the first to die because they can’t move – they are stuck in place hanging onto normal when it is not there.
Think about this: The power goes off in your house – what is the first thing you will do – the very first thing? Will you stand there not moving because you can’t think of the first thing to do? Normalcy just left you and you are stuck in place. The faster you get out of being stuck, the better chance you have of surviving anything.
If you read about my first floor flooding with water, you read about being stuck in normalcy. It was a shock and I had brain freeze and it took some minutes before I could react. What did I do – I sat down with coffee and cigarette and viewed my world and I didn’t want that water there – I wanted it to be gone as though it didn’t happen, but it was still there. I could not wish it away. It was going to stay there UNTIL I TOOK ACTION. If I had stayed in normalcy/denial, I would be wading through water today.
There is a battery small lantern on the table next to my chair. If power goes out after dark, my first action is to grab that lantern and punch it on. I just got rid of the dark and I can move to do whatever I need to do. Arrange your world so you can respond quickly.
Mental practice of putting your world together when the outside world crashes for whatever reason, will make you better able to move quickly. By this, I mean to think of your house in operation when “not normal” happens. Think of being happy that you can put your world together. You will have good water, good food and be fairly comfortable. Revel in this good place. It doesn’t matter what’s happening in Washington, D.C., or some other state, or the rest of your state or the rest of your county or the rest of your town. You have your world put together and you are proud of it. You rule your world because you made it that way. Mentally live in your house with your preps working. Visualize how it will look, how it will feel, the tasks you will perform. If you mentally practice this, you will move when an emergency happens because you have already done it in your mind.
You are not going to be in denial and mentally freeze. You see the situation as it is and you know what to do. You have preps to make this work.
Prepping your body:You know what – I didn’t want to have that eye surgery on my eyes. What if I had put that off, seeing worse all the time, then the country collapsed and I couldn’t get it done. Why, I might have depressed myself if that happened.
Consider the health of all your parts. Are you putting off something you couldn’t get done if trucks stopped, making doctors stop? You must be able to see and your arms and legs need to work. If you have arthritis that affects your arms/hands or your knees/legs, and you haven’t done anything about that, see an arthritis doctor, called a Rheumatology doctor. Is there something wrong with your feet? Something a Podiatrist could fix? Get it done. Get your body working as well as it can.
Now we have fixed your mind to accept what may come (you can be happy because you are prepared) and you are going to fix your body.
The next article is to give you tips on how to navigate a hospital to get what you want for yourself or a loved one. These tips are based on the psychological mindset of the people working there. I have used these methods over and over in hospitals when my husband was there over the years. One tip also works in restaurants when you are in line to be seated.
