Original Article
The other afternoon I was again reading all of the wonderful comments I received regarding my post “I am a Survivor”. As I was thankful for all of your prayers, well wishes and supplemental advice, all of a sudden it hit me! It was surprise. Surprise is what I was detecting from many of the comments. “Keep up your strength”, “God will not give you a test that you can not overcome through faith in him.” “Just continue to get better.” and “My hat’s off to you and Ken for being strong, smart (preppers), people. How in the world he managed to take care of the blog and see to his hero, and you have to be his hero after all that, is beyond me.”
So here is what hit me…Adaptability. Ken and I are adaptable which is one of our traits that helped us get through this past year. “The definition of adaptability is: something or someone that can change according to need or environment. Adaptability shows the ability to learn from experience, and improves the fitness of the learner as a competitor.”
Then I realized as I gave it a little thought, that being adaptable is a huge survivor/prepper trait. Think about it, if you are not adaptable at all, chances are, you will not survive when the SHTF. Many times you may hear that when a catastrophe happens, it will only take about 3 days for people to run out of food. Many people are not adaptable enough to either have stored their own extra food or will they have grown their own food.
This is when the panic will set in. Groups of scared, hungry and panicked people will start pillaging grocery stores. Either buying or stealing, depending on the situation, the last supplies of food will be disappearing. They will break into the homes of other people trying to take what they can. How adaptable can you be in a situation like this? Will you be stocked? Will you have a ‘bug out’ plan? Will you bug out or will fear take over you and make you hide in your home? Will you help people or turn them away?
Can you “change according to need or environment”? You may be surprised at what you may or may not be capable of doing when a SHTF scenario actually hits. Adaptability was a trait that really came to the forefront last year during my time of illness and surgeries. Given a choice, I think I would have chosen not to have surgeries, but not having a choice regarding the surgeries, I made the only choice available to me. I would adapt, adjust and deal with my situation. It was a new path our Lord had put me on and I could handle it.
I guess what I am trying to say is that until you are confronted with real catastrophe, how do you really know what you will do? Unless you have been through a life threatening scenario how will you really know? If you had a home destroyed by a flood or a tornado, what did you do? What was your reaction? (your adaptability) Also very important is, what did you learn from your experience? IF it happens again, would you do anything differently?
Another situation that comes to mind is what I saw during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Please understand that I realize that was a terrible catastrophe, destructive and deadly, but here’s my thing. If I were there when that happened, I can tell you that we would’ve grabbed our bug out bags and found a way out of there, be it by an improvised boat, swimming, or walking. Talk about a lack of adaptability, this is what I saw on TV all the time. I saw lines of people literally waiting for the government to help them. Waiting for the government to help them! I never really saw anyone walking or making it to a neighboring town. I think these people truly had no clue about what to do. Point being, we will be in big trouble when SHTF, so please be ready physically and mentally.
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We have been told for years - as long as I can remember, at least since the 60's - that 72 hours is all we need to prepare for. The Red Cross says it constantly, and if you repeat something often enough, it assumes the semblance of truth even though it is, indeed, a lie. The people of New Orleans and Mississippi don't deserve to be beaten up about their lack of preparedness; the Army Corps of Engineers deceived everyone about the safety of the levees, which broke through because of improper building, lax standards and little oversight. Nor do the folks of NOLA deserve to be belittled for their lack of preparedness; when you have the Red Cross telling you 72 hours, how on earth would you know they are not telling you the truth?
ReplyDeleteHow....well I'd say "common sense" or maybe these days "uncommon sense". In case you hadn't noticed the government and associated agencies have made claims for decades that have been unmet, unproven, unreliable, and when you think about it unbelievable. Our government simply cannot handle major disasters without multiple problems cropping up and with that unnecessary loss of life. Individuals are (or should) be better prepared to deal with their own survival than the federal government is and limiting that to a 2 or 3 day window is (in my opinion) simply ridiculous. Whatever happened to the American Survive and Thrive spirit?
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