Like most of you, I’ve been keeping a pretty sharp eye on world news lately and it doesn’t look good.
That’s why I’ve started reading books written for preppers.
Preppers are people who prepare for long- or short-term emergencies by having storage closets full of food, bunkers in the woods and ammo.
For a few days or a few months, preppers desire to be prepared when “the stuff hits the fan.”
(Some might argue the stuff is hitting the fan right now. It’s hard to tell.)
They say dried foods are one of the keys to successfully surviving an emergency. So, while standing in line at Walmart the other day, I decided to make my first “prepper” purchase – a bag of Spicy Hot Cheetos.
I figured the Cheetos met a lot of prepping criteria. They have a shelf life of thousands of years, and the spiciness would keep me warm if the power goes out.
An unanticipated flaw in my plan was that I ate them on the way home.
So much for shelf life.
As for toilet paper, I still have several dozen packs left from the Covid Panic of 2020.
There was an incident involving a mouse that borrowed a few bits of toilet paper for a small home in a rolled up rug. What’s left of the TP stash is secure.
Regarding personal protection, I’m not really much of a gun person.
I’m not opposed to guns. I just figure if I ever had to use one in a crisis situation, I’d probably blow my own foot off.
So instead of buying ammo, I’ve set up an elaborate network of shoes, boots and recycled boxes in our entryway – intended to cause a potential home invader to tumble head over heels and leave us alone.
We know this plan works because we test it daily.
If the internet goes down, we’re going to have to read books again.
Here’s advice from one of my favorites:
“Don’t save treasures for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy them. And thieves can break into your house and steal them. Instead, save your treasures in heaven, where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them.” Matthew 6:19- 20
I think, along with reading the world’s news, I’ll start spending more time reading this “prepper” book and less time reading the others.