Can You See The End?

It's Easier When There Is A Light At The End Of The Tunnel

When you have a local or personal SHTF, in most cases you have some idea of how long it might last and that can go a long way toward keeping your outlook positive.  Going through our recent power outage, we didn't know how long it would last, but we knew that it was being fixed.  We could log into the power company's website and see how fast repairs were progressing, and where the crews were working each day.  That allowed us to plan accordingly.  If it were showing two to three weeks for repairs, we would have had to alter our plans and responses considerably.  It would probably also have let the heat and the stress get to us much more than it did.  What about if there had been a coronal mass ejection of the likes of the Carrington event in 1859 and half the country was down with the electrical grid melted or in flames.  We'd know that it could be fixed at some point, but communications would be primitive, at best, and it could be months or years before power could be restored for everyone.  In addition to the basic power loss from a CME, stores, gas stations, and other businesses would be unable to function.  Schools and hospitals would be out of service.  Water and sewage systems would go down without power.  If we were in that type of situation, it would require a whole new psychological outlook.  I would imagine that thousands would die simply from giving up.  A key to surviving a major SHTF will be the ability to maintain a positive attitude, despite not having knowledge of the big picture or when the situation might end.  It will also require flexibility and the ability to to alter plans and improvise.\

If, by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!