Truth is revealed in action. Beliefs, attempts, intentions, thoughts, words and feelings mean nothing until they are translated into deeds. What I do is the truth about what I am. All the rest is just cheap talk. So what have I actually done to prepare for hard times?
You might say my entire life has been spent preparing for difficulty. As a result, I have actually encountered very little of it. Strange how that works and worth thinking about.
The current impending crisis is not my first rodeo. When I got out of high school in 1961, the US was just entering a period of turmoil that was as severe as the great depression, but in different ways. It lasted for 20 years until things began to stabilize in 1982. Energy prices quadrupled as OPEC embargoed the US, political unrest led to street violence, bombings and radical extremism, recession followed recession, the housing market crashed, interest rates soared above 20%, jobless people migrated across the country looking for work, the family unit broke down as the foundation of society, cities began to decay as suburbs sprawled around the rotten core while presidents came and went in varying degrees of disgrace.
No, It wasn't my father's great depression and World War II, nor was it my grandfather's financial panics and World War I, nor was it my great- great-grandparent's civil war, but it was still a tough time to make a living and keep your wits about you. Every generation has their crisis, or at least think they do. So this is nothing new or even extraordinary in the context of history.
During my generation's "crisis", many people gave up. They decided it was the end of the world as we know it and "tuned in, turned on and dropped out", to use the jargon of the day. Many went into survivalist mode and spent the rest of their lives living in a shack, eating home grown turnips, smoking pot and doing part-time minimum wage labor for the rest of their lives. The point is that to dedicate your life to preparing for a disaster that never comes can be a disaster in itself.
In light of that, I think it is important to recognize that, no matter what happens, life will go on, the sun will come up in the morning and we will be called upon to do the best we can, with what we have, once again. That is what I am doing - things that will save me in a disaster and be useful in the absence of a disaster.