Preparedness?

10 Dec 08

Preparedness?

From a friend who just went through a "problem-prone" household move. Now, there's a redundancy!

"I thought I was prepared for everything. I wasn't!

The first couple of days of the move went okay. Only the 'usual' headaches. But, just as the new house was in complete disarray, and new owners had already moved into the old one, a 'plumbing problem' rearedits ugly head, and I had to get my family out, and to a hotel, where we stayed for a week, in several widely-separated rooms, without even having a chance to plan, nor gather together what we needed.

I was prepared for the move (or so I naively thought), but I was not prepared to be without my home-base, and without much of what I needed fordaily life, for an additional week! After a couple of days of 'disaster-du-jour,' I was beyond exasperation. I had reached 'divide/overflow!'

I then considered, if this had been a widespread terrorist attack, with the attendant mass displacement of people, how unprepared I truly was.

This frustrating, sometime scary, experience gave me a new perspective on how a real disaster, affecting many thousands of people at once, might quickly overwhelm peoples' civility, as we haven't seen in our lifetimes. 'Normal' societal relations will break down in a matter of days. A whole new world of anger and violence would emerge!

With life now back to 'normal,' I am reassessing my emergency and preparedness plans. While this past week was awful, I learned valuable lessons:

1) When confronting unanticipated difficulties, coming at you faster than you can even catalog them, much less deal with them, keep things in perspective. Don't allow yourself to fly into a tizzy! Take a breath, size up the situation, make a plan, and go forward. Cursing, spitting, and becoming upset with everyone else just delays the ultimate resolution. Calm down, and you'll calm everyone down!

2) The rule is 'Worst First!' Promptly prioritize problems. Take them on one at a time, starting with the most pressing. You'll probably never have all the information you want. Make decisions anyway, and don't look back!

3) Know the difference between a legitimate, left-threatening menace, and a mere annoyance! In our artificial existence in this civilization, we often look upon every bothersome irritation as an 'emergency.' When there is a real emergency, recognize it instantly, address it first, temporarily forsaking the rest! Learn to separate the significant from the insignificant!

4) Be prepared for the unexpected! Absorb it gracefully and move on. When you are tested, it will be in the way you least want, and are least prepared to deal with. That's why they call it a 'test!'

Ask me how I know this!"

Comment: Attitude is the difference between an "ordeal" andan "adventure!"

"Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity!"

Hanlons Razor

/John