Wow! What a great disscussion from yesterday’spost. It gave me much to think about. Then I went to a pot luck dinner our church hosted for some peace walkers last night and I came home much embarrassed. If I want to support peace in the world, I need to have peace in my life. How does that reconcile with recommending somebody spank their child because he was irritating me, especially if I raised my own kids without hitting? It doesn’t and I take it back. There were probably 10 other strategies that would have worked. Rule number #1 for blogging. Do not write when you are tired or cranky.
This did, however bring up an important preparedness issue. Do not expect me to have a solution. I am just bringing up the subject.
It was clear from the many posts I received as well as from the private emails that many of us have people in our lives we are responsible for. There are the elderly, babies and the physically, emotionally and cognivtively challenged. I believe it is a measure of our humanity that we do not set our disabled family members by the side of the road. We care for them because that’s what we do. That’s who we are. I have two children with pretty significant special needs myself. Without specialized feeding, my dear little Phoebe would not survive. Without daily medication, another daughter would not function. The feeding issue is less problematic. We could feed Phoebe by hand with a homemade formula substitute if the purchased supplement ran out. It would take a chunk of our day and she would suffer nutritionally but she would survive in the short run. In a true grid down, long term disaster, she would probably not live. It would much more difficult for the child who needs medication. There are no herbs or tonics that would replace the very targeted medication she takes. Like I said. No solutions.
As much as you can, you do need to think about the needs of those who will be unable to care for themselves in a crisis. Are you prepared with diapers and a way to wash them? Do you have a stash of necessary medications? Perhaps the more important question is this. Are you mentally prepared to care for your loved ones, no matter who they are, no matter what the circumstances? It also brings to mind the larger question of your place in responsibility to the wider community. I am attending a multi-town emergency preparedness training on Friday. I will repeat something I have stated before. I can not eat if my neighbors are hungry. I can not be warm if they are cold. We are pack animals. We need our tribe, our herd, our people. Living alone and isolated holds no appeal for me.
September 24, 2009 at 9:08 am
I guess “being prepared” with regard to child rearing is stocking up on good discipline so when “disaster occurs” in the form of a tantrum you don’t need to resort to spanking!?
Off the topic a bit, yesterday we got a flat tire, a puncture from driving over something sharp. My husband knows how to fix these kinds of things. However, he has gotten a bit disorganized lately, and couldn’t find the rubber cement. It eventually got taken care of, but we had to cancel some plans for the day. Had things been in their place and ready, we wouldn’t have missed a beat. I also can’t stop thinking: what if this was an emergency? (We also need a full-size spare on hand, the donut will only just limp you home or to the nearest service place.)
A good idea for a future post: what to have on hand for unexpected car problems…?
September 24, 2009 at 10:56 am
So nice to be reading a preparedness blog that urges people to take care of their neighbors instead of just holing up in some backwoods place with a bunch of guns! Thank you, Kathy.
September 24, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Funny you should mention this. I’m sitting at a friends’ house. She is having a bad week – she has fibromyalgia, Chrone’s disease and Rhemetoid Arthrytis. I’ve spent a week doing 15 load of laundry and three weeks worth of dishes. One of her kids is BiPolar and slightly Autistic and ADHD. The other is asthmatic and ADHD. My other friend sitting int he living room here is allergic to all milk products and is Epileptic. Her eldest is Autistic. Her youngest, 4 weeks old, is having seizures of unknown origin. My own son is partially deaf and ADHD. I have a feeling if doom came calling (as if it hasn’t already in some respects), I could conceivably inherit all of the kids, at least until their families could (if they chose to) get them. I am trying to prepare for all eventualities and posibilities (while being unemployed, no less). At least being unemployed right now, I can help my sick friend and my newly postpartum friend. You do what you can. Anything less would be inhumane.
September 24, 2009 at 11:06 pm
One thing that being prepared is allowing us to do right now, is to put together a box of food and personal care products to donate to help the victims of the floods here in Georgia. Counties both to the north and the south of us were hit really hard. We were fortunate to have missed the heavy downpours and subsequent flooding but there are so many people in need right now.
That’s one thing that this has reinforced for me. I was starting to get discouraged because there just seems so much to prepare for and it all seemed to be in that nebulous, unknown future. Well… that “future” can arrive at any time and it’s important to continue to do what we can to prepare.
September 25, 2009 at 5:14 am
I am tireed just reading this Madison. Lots of words of wisdom. Thank you.
September 25, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I have to respectfully disagree that we should be prepared to feed “everyone”. I should add that all my friends and family, and immediate neighbors from my mom’s house are welcome to what ever help and assistance I can give. I live in an area that has a lot of gang activity, drugs and its share of crime. I do not have any intention of feeding the people who cause these problems. I will do my best to defend my home from them. I am slightly envious of you folks that live in an area where you know all your neighbors and can look to them for help. Sad to say that even in rural America, this is not usually the case. The town I live by that has all these issues has only about 30,000. The rest of the towns in my county have approx 2000 or less. They are, for the most part, safe but still the sense of community has been lost. I would like to know how to seek out the others in the area that are of the same mindset so that we can try to start things like you guys do up there in your little town. Is the solution to find a small town to move to? This is one of those things that I think will vary from one family to another, and perhaps there is not a single solution to any of the problems wiht my community.
September 25, 2009 at 4:05 pm
If I lived near where you do I would feel exactly the same. Our town has 800 people and most of us know each other by sight and reputation. In a real emergency, small or silent is the only way to go.
September 25, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I agree with Michelle. We live in a rural area, and no longer have the neighbors like we used to have. The new people do not know how or want to neighbor. We had one family move in a years ago and when I went to introduce ourselves, took some homemade bread and our phone number to give them and told them if they needed anything to feel free to contact us, etc. and their response was “if we need something, we’ll get it ourselves or hire someone to do it.” Our closet town is 2000, but most people commute the hour to the city. We also would like a bigger network than what we currently have.