TEOTWAWKI – The End of the World As We Know It. This acronym is meant to bring chills down your spine. It encompasses any man-made, natural and even supernatural disaster that can bring the end to the pampered lives we’ve led. Goodbye electricity, hot water, sanitation, technology, secured homes. Hello campfire cooking, homesteading, food preservation, hunting, etc. Do I believe it will happen? No. Am I in denial? Maybe, because just the thought of such a world overwhelms with me so much anxiety that I literally want to put a pillow over my head and scream “NO!!!” at the top of my voice.
So why am I prepping? Because I am realistic enough to know that disasters can happen when you least expect them. And when they do come, you have to be at least basically prepared to survive till things go back to normal.
A while ago, for example, Southern California experienced an earthquake of 4.4 magnitude. California experiences, on the average, about 10,000 earthquakes, big and small, every year. This one, though, happened on an early Monday morning and its epicenter was close to Los Angeles. It is very difficult to maintain your equilibrium when the earth is rumbling and your walls are trembling at 6 in the morning.
I thought I was the only one unhinged by the experience. It turns out that it was so unnerving to Los Angelenos that even the city was alarmed and moved to finally do something in terms of earthquake preparedness. The city officials and the entire city have been in denial even after the Northridge quake that caused damages of over $20 Billion. Not anymore.
If an entire city can be so neglectful about its preparations for a disaster, it’s easy to see why so many people are overwhelmed by the idea of prepping that they’d rather not think about it and instead say a little prayer for safety.
This book is about prepping the Zen way. It’s meant for people who don’t necessarily believe that a calamity will strike but would like to prepare in a minimal way, “just in case.”
As an update, another stronger earthquake hit L.A. once again, barely two weeks after the last one. Two quakes in less than a month. What are the odds?
Whatever they are, don’t take any chances. Prepping doesn’t have to be an all-out, full-blown, must-build-my-bunker approach. One step at a time. Slowly, calmly, in harmony with everything else in your life and environment.
