Getting Back to Basics

There is something to be said about getting away for the weekend on a camping trip with your friends. Fresh air, few distractions and new surroundings help set the stage for a relaxed comradery and the enviable campfire chats. A great social event. In your preparations for your trip you would plan on a suitable location, include some sort of shelter, food and water, various types of clothing, some alcohol and fireworks perhaps and of course your family pet. Your outdoorsperson prowess is on the line with this event and with all other eyes rolling, you posture yourself by rubbing two sticks together trying to start a fire. Of course you have a lighter, everyone does. If fact you have a propane stove, cooler fridge, lanterns, soft bed, makeup kit, toilet paper, DVD player, cell phone, wireless laptop and a fully fueled automobile just ten feet away just in case you had forgotten anything. You are prepared and as you fumble with your new Swiss Army knife to open a cold one you think to yourself …It’s great to get away but I know I must go back.

The Amish have the good life. Unburdened by the stress of our modern lifestyle they seem content in their low tech lives and have continued their generations long self-sufficient traditions. Living by their hand, they control their future directly by hard work and the understanding that any payoff is dependent on the individual. Cooperation is also part of the Amish life as fields are prepared with friends and homes are built with neighbors. It is the 19th century today with horse drawn plows, butter churns, and lye powered washboards, group sing-alongs and apple cider. Truly a hammer and nails lifestyle. A lifestyle dependent only on you, your livestock and your tools. Your tools. The young can leave this paradise. In fact its encouraged.” I have to get away” they think, but most will come back.

There were no cavemen. Simply put there are/were not enough caves to house everyone let alone caves close to a water source. Our ancestors lived in shelters. Shelters made by hand with materials found close by and with knowledge and skill few persons alive today possess. Some caves were used as shelters yes but most caves were ritual shamanistic places used for worship and enlightenment. The early churches. Cavemen collected nuts, fruits, tubers and berries for their staple diet and clothed themselves with skins and fibers. Hand collected and hand crafted, the essence of these early people depended on the knowledge of nature. Medical plants, migrations, seasonal growth, weaving grass and cleaving stone all a fundamental part of survival. A hard life exposed to the elements, predators, disease and most importantly exposed to yourself. You want to get away you think and ask the cave “can I go back?”.

A great cataclysm is coming. You will not need to plan for this camping trip, no dates, no weather predictions, no vacation time; in fact this trip is unlike any you have had. It’s a trip we will all go on and have gone since the beginning of time. Whether you’re a Wall Street Investor, Amish farmer or caveman weaver we will face this trip on the same terms. Ourselves. As individuals. Who will you be? Survival depends on skills. Skills relevant to the conditions at hand and the conditions you will face will require a new mindset. Talk to your friends and neighbors, read about organic farming, learn about medicinal plants, practice physical fitness and pick a new profession. A profession based on you; what you can do as an individual. Time is short and you must act now. You are measured in the heavens, your place, and your time. Please believe me when I tell you ...you cannot get away and there is no going back.