Regardless of who you are now, who you were in the past, or who you will be in the future, I think everyone will now be a ‘prepper’. Please consider this: We’ve all had a taste of doing without something in the past month or so, and I for one don’t look forward to this time in history becoming the new normal.
I was in Girl Scouts from about 2nd grade until 7th grade. We learned many skills such as hiking, cooking outside, sleeping outside, fire starting, selling cookies (yes, that is a skill) and being a responsible citizen. In the forth grade our teacher taught some of us to crochet. In high school I took Home Economics and learned to sew. My maternal grandmother taught me to make jelly, and a good friend taught me to can meat in jars. These are mostly skills that all of our grandmothers learned from a very young age, and some of our grandfathers as well. But many of our youth today are not learning life skills.
Ask a child what they want to do and who they want to be when they grow up. For me and my friends the answer may have been occupations such as a teacher, a policeman, a fireman, a doctor, nurse or mommy. But ask a kid today what they want to be and many will answer that their goal in life is to be a gamer, you tuber, or professional sports player. What changed? And when did it change? I think for many, parents did not want their children to have to work as hard as they did, so in an effort to let them enjoy their childhood, they also deprived the children from learning life skills that are most certainly going to come in handy now and in the future.
Take a moment and think about jobs that were not considered ‘essential’ to life during this pandemic. Who was shut down? Well, movie theaters were closed, so actors really weren’t needed. We enjoy the distraction from the problems of life and escape the reality by watching a movie or attending a ball game, but those things are not essentials. Tattoo parlors, nail salons, and hair dressers were also asked to close. I love to have my finger and toe nails ‘done’, and there’s really nothing like getting a new hair cut to lighten your step for a little while. Dine-in eating establishments are certainly a convenience and a welcome change for many but they, too, were closed for a few weeks and a lot of folks had to start cooking at home more, or in some cases, again. All of these places that were asked to close for safety’s sake are a large part of our lives and were missed greatly, but apparently were not deemed ‘essential’ to life.Continue reading“Preparing – Practicing & Preaching, by TJ in Georgia”
