The concept of ‘Prepping’ usually invites an emotional or ready-made response. ‘Prepping’ might be seen as something positive where switched on people seem to be ingenious at bunking down and surviving a hurricane, pandemic, or economic collapse. On the other hand, the term ‘prepping’ can also bring an inner response where some view ‘Preppers’ as fearful selfish people who hoard and stockpile because they have some ‘conspiracy theory’ mindset of doom.
Either way, what ‘Preppers’ do is provide a well thought out list of items for living and gradually go about learning new skills or finding creative ways of promoting human survival.
With each new generation, skills for life have been replaced with disposable commodities. In an effort to create better and quicker ways of living, we have lost many of the skills that were once passed on to the next generation. To our detriment many young people in the west today, don’t know how to cook, plant gardens, make bread or pasta. In fact, most their parents don’t know how to do this either. This is all well and good if everything in the food chain continues on indefinitely, but if there is a breakdown along the way, we come up clueless and respond more like victims than survivors.
My personal journey around the concept of prepping has taught me that motive behind prepping is really the key. If it is fear, we will likely do everything from a place of trying to cling to and control our surroundings. If it is because we are ‘warriors’ and insightful, our motive will be to prepare for a time when we might help to save a community.
I have never been a person to hoard; I love the concept of another trending topic known as ‘minimalism’. I have not been in a war or lived on the side of poverty where I have truly known hunger, but as I watch the rapid global changes taking place, I believe it is prudent to begin to learn life skills that lean toward sustainable living rather than burying our heads in the sand.
In the posts that follow I will look at other’s who have much to teach on this. And I will share the small things I have learnt myself with practical tips on where to find things, how to order others and how to make and grow others. We may not be able to stop the changing tide, but we can equip ourselves to do the best we can.
In the very first book of the Bible in Genesis, there were two characters that changed the course of humanity. One was Noah. He was considered a ‘conspiracy theorist’ in his day while he built an ark for 120 years to save his family and the animal kingdom. Until the rain began for 40 nights and days and destroyed all of civilisation. We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Noah.
The second person in the bible was Joseph, who as a 17-year-old kid, was sold into slavery by his bullying brothers and went through being exiled, imprisoned, and abandoned. But God, used this to train him in the painful years of unfair abuse. Through a series of dreams, he captivated the attention of the Egyptian Pharoah of his time and became his right-hand man as a result. Joseph went on to save grain during a season of plenty for a time when there was a severe famine in the land, because he thought further than just the day, he was living in. As a result, he saved not only a nation, but also the very same family members who sold him into slavery. To me, these guys are hero’s, not fear mongering doomsayers. But you make up your own mind.
See the Bible/Old Testament Genesis chapters 6-9 – Noah’s story and chapters 37 – 47 – Joseph’s story.
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