Full Moon

The other night when I turned the lights off to go to bed I paused, thinking I had missed turning a light off somewhere. The room was a lot lighter than normal. It took me just a moment to realize that it was because of the full moon outside. The next morning on my way to the bus the full moon was still hanging relatively high in the sky.  When I came into work I learned that several of my co-workers didn't sleep well last night. One of them suggested that it was because of the full moon last night. Doing a little bit of research shows that the words lunacy and lunatic are both from the Latin word for moon. There are plenty of other things blamed on the moon or its phases from sleep to fertility.

Regardless of what is attributed to the moon and what actually is caused by the moon (like tides and such), I've always felt a bit of a pull towards it (pun intended). There is a song by the Russian group Любэ (Lyube`/Lube`) called, Луна ("luna" - Moon). The song is the story of an old wolf who is facing the end of his life and his cry to the moon to come and take him. I have always been drawn in by the chorus - starts at 1:38 in the video in the link. The song concludes with a rather intense instrumental that seems at first rather at odds with the story in the lyrics, but how else would you expect a wolf to leave this world? (I particularly enjoyed listening to the song on my way home late at night. I would roll down the windows and turn the volume all the way up - one of the reasons my hearing may not be what it once was.)

Silver window in a pitch black wall

Silver window in a pitch black wall
Letting in the light of another world.
What can you see?

Mercury light radiating from the depths
Calling me to look into the beyond.
What will I see?

Radiant harmony and calm and peace
Shinning as a beacon for those who observe.
Where do you lead?

The maiden. The wolf. The dreamer. And me.
Your court. Your gang. Your admirers Your children.
Lead on and we follow.

J.I.C. (Just in Case)

"Be Prepared" Boy Scout Motto

"Весгда Гатов" ("Always ready") Communist Youth Pioneer's Motto

I always thought that the similarity between these two organizations' mottos was interesting. Perhaps it was just the shared goals of both, or perhaps the Pioneer's was based on the Boy Scouts (since the Boy scouts were organized first). Regardless, they both embrace the idea of Preppers - a community that looks at being prepared for anything. This is not necessarily the people that believe that the zombie apocalypses is coming, but people that are ready minor, everyday inconveniences to major disasters. The Survivalism wikipedia page it mentions multiple types of survivalists scenarios ranging from everything from Nuclear Winter to problems associated with global warming or overpopulation and the collapse of society. It also includes safety enthusiasts and wilderness survivalists. They also trace the movement back to the 1930s which makes sense considering the depression and threat of war, which rapidly grew into the threat of nuclear attack. Various disasters (both natural and socially created) have kept preppers' fires banked. With the disaster movies which have come out (with San Andreas being the newest one), not to mention the zombie movies and other films that feature End of the World scenarios that are spread across the genres it's not hard to see that popular culture has also kept preppers stocked with reasons to be prepared.

Interesting enough, Both the Boy Scouts and the Youth Pioneer's existed before the 1930s. It is possible that the youth who where always told to be prepared led the charge as adults. My own father has worked in the Scouting program for longer than I've been alive, or at least pretty close to it. He has trained hundreds of boys of many ages to be prepared and he lives what he preaches. He has emergency gear in his cars. He's carried a knife since he was my daughter's age (which as of this writing is 7), and his first aid kid could probably rival most EMT kits. Now that my sister is about to become an EMT I'll have to ask for an official comparison. In addition my parents have always maintained food storage and several years ago got their 72 hour kits finalized. However, these preparations were all taken without any membership in the "survivalist" community. They are actions promoted by his experiences with the Boy Scouts, their church, and their community. Perhaps they could be called preppers, but to me it is just part of life. While they are more prepared than I am, it is because they've had longer to to stock pile, learn, and employ survivalist principles.

There are so many different sites and resources for people interested in prepping. They all have their own take on the basic essentials of life: food, water, shelter, and health. Some break it further down into cooking, hygiene, security/protection, transportation, and other sub-categories, but the four main ones tend to stay the same. Each of those come in different forms and each prepper has their own method to ensure them. My goal here is not to discuss all of the possibilities. As a backpacker I know the importance of having food, water, shelter, and being healthy and I can also appreciate the amount of space and weight of those things. The most difficult aspect is knowing when to stop. It is not possible to be prepared for anything and you have to balance preparedness with practicality. You cannot carry your Bug-out-bag "BOB" (think supped up 72 hour kit) everywhere you go. You have to think about it.

A big part of being a prepper, it appears, is the mindset. I mentioned my father and scouting. When he leaves the house he looks at what he's planning on doing, where he'll be, and what he might need. The common outcome of this decision making process is that he tends to always have a coat or jacket with him just in case it rains. It means that he also has a pair of walking shoes and some basic food at his desk at work just in case he has to walk home. It means that he has basic tools, water, and a wool blanket in his car just in case it breaks down or he has to spend the night in the car. It means that he throws a extra tent in the car when they go camping just in case he needs it - which he has twice. For me prepping and survivalism is having a Just-in-Case (JIC) mentality. Yes, it can be taken to extremes, but it's just thinking about what you are likely to need and making sure you have it - just in case.