Last weekend I discovered the National Geographic Channel's Doomsday Preppers. I'll be honest, I tuned in because I thought the title read Doomsday PEPPERS and I was curious because Poseidon is a pepper connoisseur, so I thought I should have heard of this strange pepper plant, but I had not. Curiosity.
No garden veggies on this show (fresh food of any kind would not be a viable item to pack in your emergency bag). Never seen this show? I will include the synopsis that NGO uses because I wouldn't be able to adequately describe it without a snark or two showing up:
"Doomsday Preppers explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Unique in their beliefs, motivations, and strategies, preppers will go to whatever lengths they can to make sure they are prepared for any of life’s uncertainties. And with our expert’s assessment, they will find out their chances of survival if their worst fears become a reality."
As I'm watching Doomsday Preppers, I'm thinking to myself, "Why am I not doing this? Why am I not prepping?" I am one of the most hypervigilant people I know (and my ink blot test results can confirm this), so why am I not spending a majority of my waking hours preparing for a national or global disaster?
I stayed tuned and was temporarily caught up in the show, mostly because these folks have a belief in something that is strong, and whether "outsiders" consider their mission misguided, cautious, heroic, mongoose shit crazy, etc., they do put their energy and focus (and money) into surviving. I can't judge them for that. It makes them like any other species: instinctually driven to survive.
Back to the question I had during Doomsday Preppers: Why am I not doing this? Assuming something so catastrophic can happen at any moment, why is it that I have no emergency bag, no food or fuel storage, or solid plans to "evacuate" somewhere? 1. I don't have the right shoes and I'm not in the mood for shoe shopping. 2. Our cats told me we don't have to worry about it.
--Fortuitous Observer
