Humble Flowers/Preparedness

No post yesterday cuz I've been sick battling a chest cold - trying to keep it just a chest cold and not something more serious like bronchitis or pneumonia.  Am venturing out tonight to go to Schaller's although I probably won't be able to sing.  OK though to be audience 'cuz I will have a full posse there tonight.  Judy and Bernie and friends of theirs, Pam who always makes any occasion hilarious and fun, dreamy Kenneth, my "date" Christ, and this new gal Trish I met at Maggiano's piano bar.  She is an amazing singer, truly amazing - good enough to win any contest.  Her looks belie her singing - early '60's, retired schoolteacher with tailored good looks and perfectly coiffed blond hair.  Beneath the exterior must lie the heart of a true romantic because when she sings a song like "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" be prepared to weep.   I did and remembered a certain bunch of inexpensive flowers that I later made fun of just to wound him for wounding me first. What I would give to take those words back! Anyway, the song made me think of those flowers and it was a good thing I wasn't wearing mascara. So Trish=new friend I hope and maybe a third member in the new Andrews Sisters act that Bobby Benson wants to put together.  Me, Pam and Trish?  All good singers.  Could be a lot of fun.

Today I'm thinking about spring, rebirth, change - on so many fronts.  Even the little things bring anxiety.  Yesterday Catherine stopped by - she is on spring break (works in a school).  She eyed my etagere full of old dusty photographs that were jammed into drawers like sedimentary layers of our family life waiting to be excavated.  She said, "I bet you don't want most of those pictures!"  In my mind I disagreed, sure that I would find myself nostalgic over each and every photo.  Instead of putting up resistance, I gulped and said, "OK, let's look through them."  She made short work of a full drawer - years of family pics.  And she was right.  There were pictures of unknown landscapes, people I didn't recognize, blurred shots of cats' butts taken by a kid.  Once the unknown and unwanted were disposed of, there was a tidy stack no higher than a few inches that made the cut.  It was quick, simple and almost fun to go through them and so gratifying to be able to throw away a full trash bag of old life.

Now at the office that is also a relic.  2400 SF of unneeded space.  I've been trying to sell it with no takers and now I'm poised to just let the bank have it back.  There is SO much to go through, so much stuff, so much that was once valuable and meaningful - now albatrosses to be dealt with.  Two full closets full of pandemic flu preparedness supplies. There were those two years when I lived and breathed H5N1.  I was a virtual flu scholar (still am, ask me anything).  It's a rabbit hole to start the thought process of what happens when there is a threat to civilization as there would be with a lethal pandemic flu.  There is no end to the concern.  I hope you realize that our civilization is built on a paper towel.  Get that paper towel wet and everything will fall.  There are false illusions that we are a resilient society, that we are well equipped to deal with catastrophe.  The truth is, we are incredibly fragile, lack self sufficiency.  With just in time manufacturing and supply chains there is only enough food in most cities for a few days.  Our Internet dependency means we are just a few keystrokes away from financial ruin.  Most of us have no intrinsic skills - we do not know how to take care of ourselves in a survivalist way.  Our medicines are made overseas.  I could go on and on.  It's really scary and because there has not been a national catastrophe in our lifetimes, we are complacent, lazy, unprepared and deluded about what could happen.

So, I amassed supplies, cases of MRE's, medical supplies, survival items.  It was my goal that, with the supplies we had on hand, I could care for my family for a full year without leaving our home .  I also planned on defending those supplies and as such, I learned to shoot and had plans to fortify my home and arm the family.  It all seems unreal, right?  Crazy Sarah?  I'm not crazy.  If there was another pandemic flu like in 1918, we would be screwed.  If H5N1 which  kills more than 50% of its victims mutated to be a pandemic flu (a brand new flu that no one has immunity to), half the world population would be gone in three years.  We would find ourselves in a new dark age, anarchy and chaos - guaranteed.  If Sarah=crazy, it is probably to think that I could defend our turf and supplies. That was probably my delusion.  The people who will survive will be those living in remote areas far away from rabid city dwellers who would otherwise overwhelm them.

So, what to do about all the supplies?  Keep some and hope that we dodge a bullet in my lifetime.  We're overdue for a super volcano (Yellowstone blows big every 70,000 years or so)  The last one almost wiped out humanity - humans were reduced to just over 1,000 surviving souls from which we're all descended.  We are statistically overdue for a pandemic flu (did you know that most plagues were pandemic flu's?).  And don't get me started on meteors and comets!

Spring, rebirth and change - it's here whether we're ready for it or not!  The challenge for us could be to look change face on, embrace it, find our new place and carve out a place at the newly set table, even if that place is not at the head, and simply enjoy the ride and the wonder of it.  Yesterday I commented to Madeleine, "Look at the new crop of spring babies!"  It's the same every year in the spring - the baby animals - whether at the Farm in the Zoo or on the sidewalks being pushed by young mothers.  Time's a marching.  The new babies are coming to take their place in the world (our place) and there is nothing to be done about it except to pinch their little thunder thighs and breathe in their wonderfullness.  It's life and it marches along.

Peace,
Sarah

Picture of Yellowstone - caldera

NADGB