(So Don’t Forget to Prep for Blue Skies)
After decades of dabbling in emergency preparedness and self-reliance one of the most important assets that I have acquired is a decent paying job that provides insurance benefits. That would have been a shocking revelation to my younger self. What?! It’s not a paracord bracelet or a survival knife with the fishing line in the hollow handle?! Nope.
I still remember the feelings coursing through my body as a boy when I would sneak downstairs and pull out that survival knife that my dad had purchased from a TV infomercial. I would marvel at the bubble of a compass on the hilt that would almost point to North, if you tapped it gently from time to time. Pulling the blade from its Naugahyde sheath would expose the saw teeth along the spine of the knife and I knew that even Arthur didn’t feel that surge of power because Excalibur wasn’t designed to saw through thumb-sized branches in a matter of mere minutes! And! And, I could use it for fishing! I could bring in vital sustenance if a fish swam within six feet of me to bite a bare hook and then continue directly into my hands to avoid stressing the brittle line that was probably older than I was.
While wielding that massive blade in my basement I knew I could defend myself against hordes of oncoming bad guys or bears. As I had learned from watching Crocodile Dundee, bad guys didn’t have blades that big, they just ran from blades that big. And! And, bears would probably run, too, if they knew what was good for them.
All of my focus was on worst-case, doomsday scenarios and I loved it! But, none of my focus was on the day to day life that I was actually living. I was more focused on Doomsday than Tuesday until one lesson changed my life.
So, yeah… It turns out that a stable job that allows me to prep and save money has never brought such a surge of shivering adrenaline with it. However, it has allowed me to build up a modest savings fund, pay for a roof big enough for my family and some storage, protect me against some horrendous health care costs, and buy my own knives so my sons can be jealous ☺
My best prep for Doomsday was to maximize my success everyday.
I am far from being able to buy a bunker, but there are so many prepping options that are within my reach now that were not a decade or two ago. Not to mention that I can actually rest easy (most of the time) without the worry that comes from living paycheck to paycheck. That’s a quality of life improvement that even the best blades can’t bring.
John F. Kennedy once said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining…” The same seems to be true for building roofs… and lives.
So, to all the boys with blades out there, if you’re not working towards a meaningful earning potential, you are just daydreaming. Continue daydreaming, but don’t just daydream. Build something real out of your lives and you will find a solid sense of accomplishment and you can also buy more knives (and real fishing gear)!