Emergency Preparedness, redux

This blog started in December 2008, but its roots go much farther back.

Heading to Australia and New Zealand for a month in September of 2008, I lost my job and the economy crashed. There was so much happening politically and I had so much travel to write about that I created a travel blog in addition to the main blog.

At the same time, I was doing an emergency preparedness newsletter. It was not the first time I had done so, but I realized that with all of the time I spent writing the newsletters, there was no easy way for people to find them. I started going through old letters and posting them on the blog, then adding new content.

I had been writing the preparedness newsletters because I was the ward emergency preparedness coordinator and that seemed like a good way of getting information to people. 

Then I got called to stake emergency preparedness, so I started a letter for that. Some time later they changed the stake boundaries, where our ward was in a different stake. I was released on the stake level and they snapped me back up at the ward level. Back to the ward letter. Those are the letters that I started posting on this blog.

Going even further back, what led to me being called to ward emergency preparedness the first time was that I was volunteering at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market, answering questions about food safety and storage. One of the bishopric counselors saw me there and was perhaps impressed by my knowledge.

I was there because I had taken a Master Food Preservers class through the OSU Extension Services. It was expected to do some kind of service after that. 

I did that training in 1998. Lots of people were getting more interested because Y2K was coming up, and there had been a slew of natural disasters that were pretty close to each other. People worried.

I have always wanted to take care of people and help them; taking additional training and passing on the information was always a very natural fit for me.

This will be my 578th published post on this Provident Living blog. 

There are many on food storage, emergency kits, power outages, and earthquakes, but emergency preparedness is just one aspect of provident living. There is also the state of your mind and body and spirit. They are all important. 

If they weren't, I would never have spent so much time on dominator culture. I have no regrets about that, except that it didn't influence the election.

Right now having emergency supplies on hand seems very pertinent, and it is something that I am thinking about. However, the most important thing is the state of your soul. Where is your heart? How is your resilience?

Remember, the thing that helps me and the thing that burdens me is that -- for me -- everything is important.

This blog seems to be combining with the main blog a lot more. The travel blog is still its own thing, I guess, except that there are now evaluations of COVID risk and accessibility issues on every post. That is probably a sign of me becoming more radical.

Still no regrets.

Anyway, deciding what to post about is hard, because I am not sure what will be important soonest, and how long will it take to get through certain material. 

Remember that there is a lot of information that is already out there.

For your perusal, here is the very first post on this blog, posted here at the end of 2008 but originally written in September 2007.

Prices have changed.

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2008/12/september-2007-getting-started.html

 

One decade

I was recently called as second counselor in my ward's Relief Society presidency.

For those who don't know, Relief Society is the women's organization, and a ward is the congregation that you meet with. Most of the organizations have a presidency, with a president, two counselors, and a secretary. There are different responsibilities with that. Mine includes connecting with the committee that plans activities for the Relief Society, the young women's organization, and missionaries. I am still getting up to speed.

Another thing is that for the lessons on Sunday, generally a presidency member gives one of the lessons each month, and we alternate. November was my first time, and that lesson is informing today's post. That is the main reason I mention it,  but if you want to feel impressed or surprised or confused, have at it. I was a little surprised.

Lessons are generally based on a conference talk. The one that had stuck with me the most was "Days Never to Be Forgotten" by Gary E. Stevenson. I ended up combining it with "In the Space of Not Many Years" by David A. Bednar.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/44stevenson?lang=eng   

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/35bednar?lang=eng 

Both of them are about the things that can happen over a short period of time. Sometimes that can be marvelous events and sometimes growing pride and wickedness.

In the case of Elder Stevenson's talk, he speaks of 1820 - 1830 and 2024 - 2034.

I will admit, my first thought was looking ahead ten years and thinking, is it going to be the Second Coming? If it is, how much can I get done by then? 

(Not long after, I started wondering if we even had four years left.)

I very quickly remembered that even if we were at the point where they were going to tell us, it would probably not be like that, but the thought remained. A lot can happen in ten years regardless. 

Things I remembered about that shifted my perspective, and that influenced the lesson.  

First of all, I remembered setting decades-long goals in three areas back when I was 40. My intent was that I didn't want my life to just be getting older and more decrepit; I wanted to be vibrant when I turned 50. 

I had done some writing and some traveling, and fitness was important, if not my strong suit. There were writing goals that were going to culminate in shooting my own movie when I was fifty, and I was going to hit Africa, Asia, and South America -- the continents I had not been to -- then plan a trip to Antarctica. Finally, at 50 I was also going to do a triathlon.

None of that happened.

My life fell apart in ways I could not have predicted. I still learned and grew a lot, and I am a very vibrant individual, though I don't always feel it. 

For the most part I don't regret how I have handled the events that have come up. It didn't look like I'd planned though; that's for sure.

Then I thought a little bit more about 1820 through 1830, or the ten years between the First Vision and the organization of the church.

(It may seem silly to explain Relief Society presidencies and not explain the First Vision, but the links to the talks will have other resources, you can always reach out if there are questions.)

Those are momentous events in those ten years, but there were very big things that happened after.

In addition, there were long gaps in between. 

It was four years between the First Vision and Moroni's first visit. 

I think that was good. Joseph was young and had time to grow, but having the First Vision before he had joined another church surely played an important role in his development. It kept him from being influenced by another church or being listed as a member of one, which surely would have come up.

Then, after Moroni's first visit it was another four years before Joseph actually got the gold plates and could begin translation. 

We know that time was also important for growth, so that he could have the right priorities. There was the temptation for money and other corruptible things. He needed that time to become the person who could handle the task he had ahead of him.

Then, partway through the translation the 116 pages were lost. 

He had grown and developed a lot; there was still some growth needed.

It was hard. Lucy Mack Smith said: 

“I well remember that day of darkness, both within and without. To us, at least, the heavens seemed clothed with blackness, and the earth shrouded with gloom. I have often said within myself, that if a continual punishment, as severe as that which we experienced on that occasion, were to be inflicted upon the most wicked characters who ever stood upon the footstool of the Almighty--if even their punishment were no greater than that, I should feel to pity their condition.”

There was a plan in place to make up for it, but that didn't mean it wasn't hard.

We can speculate upon the events of the next ten years. There will certainly be hard times. 

There can also be help and growth and love. There can be answers to prayers. There can be plans in place to help us even when we stumble.

We can still be vibrant, even if we won't always feel it. 

Pressing forward

People are often impressed by what I remember, and for how long after. I have a theory about that.

Part of the normal  process of remembering is that there are things that are sorted as not particularly important. They slough off, allowing you to prioritize the things that are more important.

Everything is important to me. I think that is why so much sticks. It also might make me a bit more prone to burnout.

As I started to feel more dread Tuesday, it sent my mind in many different directions. I am still working to get that in order. What are the priorities? What is the same? What is different?

I unfriended some people who were celebrating. I have avoided unfriending for years because I hope for chances at positive engagement. I had not previously considered the energy some of them took, even for just knowing about their posts. There are people who are not reasonable priorities. 

The first thing that came up was birthdays. I knew some of those friends were not having happy birthdays, but birthdays are still going to happen. Continued survival may become a more significant thing to celebrate. I still had to give those birthday wishes.

The next was the song of the day. It felt kind of trivial, except so much of my song curation relates to exploring other cultures and genres and things. It is not trivial, even when it results in a Ricky Martin song.

I had a couple of days before I needed to worry about blogging, but the Friday blogs have been about books and movies. Lately those have been about Japanese American internment in World War II, immigration at the Southern border, and activism against homophobia, transphobia, and the neglect of AIDS. 

It's not trivial.

Something else gave me more encouragement.

Part of my personal study to go along with the old conference talks has been old magazines. Yesterday I was reading the April 1988 Ensign, and I came across this quote:

“I write these few lines to inform you that we feel determined in this place not to be dismayed if hell boils over all at once. We feel to hope for the best, and determined to prepare for the worst.”
(History of the Church, 6:485–86.) 

That struck my heart, and then there was a story about a tornado.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1988/04/tornado?lang=eng

There had not been warnings about the tornado, but the weather had been hot and humid, and Don Hughes had been thinking about leaving early and his wife stopped by and suggested he leave early too.

He didn't because he felt like he had something to do, and that something was ultimately saving the people around him by keeping a cool head, getting them to the safest shelter, and then helping other people clear of the wreckage after.

We know many stories about people feeling the urge to move or delay or something that saves their own lives. If he had just gone home, he probably would have been perfectly fine, and maybe glad not to have been there. 

That gladness may have been unbearable survivor's guilt if he had. Not that you know in advance how things will turn out, but sometimes you can do some real good.

Those racing thoughts have mainly been focused on what good I can do, so it resonated with me, but that's not why I share it. 

The things that I have been doing are good for me. They have been things I felt that I needed to do, and there have been false starts and frustrations, but then clear benefits come, and that is encouraging.

Most of my smiles this week come from music and cats.

I expect that there will be a lot of terrible things, and it will be hard, with lots of anger and sadness and fear, but there will be good I can do and I will focus on that. 

With some things I posted, there was more response than usual. A lot of us have some similar feelings, and commiseration and mutual support can be valuable. I can do that.

A few things came up where I was persistently disagreeing with people whom I mostly like and respect. Some things that could seem minor are not, at least not to me. I have less ability to let things go, and I think I am reconciled to that. If I thought everything was important before...

I will try and keep my communications kind and helpful, but there may also be some bulldog tenacity.

Another thing about me is that I have always worried about being annoying. I would sometimes limit contact with people I really liked because I worried about them getting tired of me, often when I did not need to worry.

I mention that because this tenacity and inability to let some things go may end up being really irritating. 

Fortunately, in a very real way I have been preparing for this my entire life. 

I'll pray for you

My sisters are really very kind and caring people. There is also a mean streak. 

Election years are already frustrating. They have interacted with some people whom it might not be fair to call "terrible", and yet it kind of is.

Anyway, they closed two conversations with people who were combining ignorance and hatred by saying "I will pray for you."

That shouldn't be so spiteful.

Personally, I pray for people all the time. I generally do not tell them because it can come off as condescending (which clearly can be intentional). If I see you are having a hard time, there is a good chance I will say a quick prayer for you. If you ask people to pray for you I almost certainly will; I just am not likely to mention it.

(Studies have shown that prayer helps, whether people know they are being prayed for or not.)

In this case, these prayer promises (or threats?) were born of frustration, and not sincere. That did not seem right, so there was nothing to do but add these people to our family prayers.

My motivations were not exactly high-minded either. I suspected it would get some eye rolls, but it was about taking prayer seriously. 

I have had a few thoughts about this.

1. I know praying for people can soften our hearts toward them. 

It hasn't in this case. That may be that we have not been doing it long enough, but also hatefulness and ignorance is a really bad combination for me, increasing the challenge in this instance. 

If there are some people who really mean well but are just not that bright, maybe praying for them is a good option. (Probably not specifically praying that they get smarter though.)

2. After all, people can change, including us.  

I have seen some people who were initially repelled by Trump come to his side. Generally it started with developing hostility toward others that spread to everything, until they felt that they were deluded when they didn't hate everyone else.

Obviously part of that is that I need to keep my heart soft. Caring for others -- including praying for them -- can be a part of that.

Change can go in a better direction, and continuing to care leaves hope open for that.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-12/conspiracy-theory-believers-on-how-they-got-out-of-rabbit-hole/103907258 

3.That hope is for those we pray for, not just us.

I keep remembering being confronted by a woman at church after the 2008 election. I had never seen her engaging with my posts (I was quite new on Facebook then), but she had seen that I was pro-Obama. 

She was upset, and I was getting what I wanted, but it wasn't even that she was angry or rude: her voice was breaking and she was scared.

There are people who take the fear-mongering seriously. I usually focus more on the hate-mongering, but when you believe you are surrounded by bad people, your perception of the world around you becomes pretty dismal. It's inaccurate, but a lot of our experience is perception.

There is a lot of uncertainty about many things right now. I hope for some additional clarity Tuesday.

For now, I will pray for us. 

And I will remember that our care for the worst people can never cause us to sacrifice those most in need of help.

That's where a lot of other people with good intentions go wrong, but that's back to dominator culture; has that been made clear enough?