The Y2K scare of the last century brought to the forefront the need to be prepared for potential disruptions to our lives. Several devastating weather events in the years that followed brought to light how woefully unprepared we are as a nation. This brought many of us paranoid survivalists out of our cabins in the woods to start the modern prepping trends.
In 2012, National Geographic produced a television show called Doomsday Preppers. The show lasted four seasons and had fifty episodes, including the pilot. Each episode focused on up to three different preppers and what they were prepping for. This ranged from the total economic collapse of the world to the erupting of the Yellowstone Caldera and every conceivable possibility in between. Drama makes for good television so it should come as no surprise that prepping extremists were the ones highlighted. They took the reputation of us paranoid cabin dwellers and paraded it front and center for the world to see.
So, why do we prep and what should you be prepping for? The answers to those questions are as varied as the number of preppers themselves. Prepping first and foremost is a mindset. Your mindset will determine what is right for you. Do not let anyone tell you how you should prep. Everyone’s education, training, experience, and means are different and will lead to different conclusions and opinions. I will share what I do for myself and my family. It may not be the best way for you and yours. Expose yourself to as many different points of view as you can and draw from them the information you need to do what is best for your life and the lives you are responsible for.
We all live comfortable little lives. We prep for when those lives are interrupted by some sort of event. I do not believe it is important to be prepared for that earth shattering, cataclysmic event that hasn’t happened in seventy-thousand years, even if we are overdue. I think it is more important to be prepared for those events that have a higher probability of happening to me today.
Be prepared for the two most common natural disasters for the area in which you live.
This means that if you live along the coast anywhere from Texas to the Big Cesspool you should be prepared for tropical storms and hurricanes. If you live on the Left coast, earthquakes and wild fires are most likely to affect you. If you are in fly-over country, you get to deal with tornados and blizzards. Those living by a mountain range or along our northern border get the joy of dealing with snow deeper than the fecal matter surrounding our capitol. Once you can successfully survive the two most common natural disasters in your neck of the woods you can begin to prepare for less common, but possible events that could affect your state of being. These would include things like extended periods of extreme heat, volcanic eruptions if you live in Hawaii, tsunamis if you live near either ocean, and every sort of man-made event like the riots we have seen in recent years.
We prepare so we are ready for when normal life is interrupted by an event. We prepare so that we can keep our lives as close to normal when the world around us is not. When you fail to prepare for these things you put your lives into the hands of people who don’t have your best interests at heart. As mom used to say, “You will get what you get, so don’t throw a fit.”