Be Prepared

I was never a really good boyscout when I was a kid. My older brothers were all scouts and my father was at one time the scoutmaster. But, by the time I was old enough to be a boyscout, my older brothers were beginning to move on to other things. The only thing we shared in common was one real year of white water canoeing. That was all I was really in it for, and it was a blast. Beyond that, all of the badges...well to say it well from a great movie..."We don't need no stinking badges!"

But I do remember one thing... the motto: Be prepared!

Be prepared! That meant a lot as a kid. It meant have your pocket knife handy. Have a compass and some rope. You could never have too much rope, because who knew what you might need to lash together. I was never much with knot tying... but I certainly WAS ready!

I was thinking lately that the concept of Be Prepared! certainly is making a comeback in my life. Living in south Florida, every year I get prepared for hurricane season. A few years ago, we were lucky (bad word choice, I know) to be hit with a few hurricanes which tested my preparedness. I learned a few things, like... its tough making coffee before dawn on a balcony when you try to hand pour boiling water into a coffee filter. Its even tougher cleaning up the balcony from coffee grounds without a healthy rain storm when you have no water. So I got smarter. Now I have a French Press coffee pot. Heat the water up on the camp stove, have some pre-ground coffee... and I'm good to go! Hot coffee post hurricane.

Beyond that, the late economic challenges have brought Be Prepared! even more close to home. I've moved into a house with a big back yard, relative to other South Florida homes. I've got things growing in the yard to suppliment my groceries: tomatoes, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados and some kind of south American fruit that looks like a peach but is a lot smaller. I've had mangoes for breakfast every morning for the last 3 1/2 weeks. It really does pay to be prepared!

The real question is, is it time for the next level of Be Prepared? I received an e-mail this morning from a group called the 1776 Coalition. They sent me this long e-mail about survival and being a survivalist. It was all about Be Prepared! According to the coalition, the US is on the verge of collapse socially, and the military may have to come in and keep the peace. Although, it was all about doing it by yourself and screw your neighbors. I personally have a problem with that. In the end, they offered a series of books with a subscription to either 12 or 24 monthly issues. Now, think about it... according to them...this is "time sensitive" and needs to be dealt with immediately because we are on the verge of chaos, yet they are going to give me a subscription for 24 months. Guys... with chaos, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get my subscription delivered. I'm just saying...

But it doesn't end there! Oh no! My Be Prepared morning is starting to sound like a commercial for Ginsu knives. CNN this morning is reporting more issues with North Korea. Specifically "US READY FOR NORTH KOREA MISSLE". Ok, so this is one time, I'm glad someone else is on the Be Prepared! list. I think Gates must have also been a boyscout. Hopefully he was a better one than me. I'm not sure my tomatoes will be enough for a nuclear shot. Unless the radiation makes them grow really really big.

And then of course for those of you that are Catholic... I follow what happens in Medjugorje. You know... every month there are messages from our Lady. Trust me, its pretty impressive try www.medjugorje.net to get info. Anyway, there are these secrets associated with it. Things that will happen to help us come back to the church, and come back to God. Ok, so some of us may not make it back, which is the point of the secrets and their revealing. The secrets have been made known to a select group of individuals and as the date of their happening comes close, they will be revealed to the world. The way in which they will be revealed will be as follows: A local priest will be told 10 days prior to the event. He will meditate and pray about the event for 7 days, and then will tell the world. Now no one other than the individuals involved in these events knows what will be involved. One of the secrets was apparently so catestrophic that prayer has averted it. Now please don't take any of my comments as belittling these preported events or how they have determined to make them public. That's not my perview. However, when these secrets ARE made public, there are a whopping 3 days to react prior to their happening. Now, 3 days to do what? Be Prepared! Be Prepared! How does one prepare for something we don't even know what it is? Good question! I haven't a clue. But it seems that like with hurricane season, we could prepare a bit physically, a bit spiritually, and a bit emotionally. For us Catholics, it would mean going to confession, and continuing to go, once per month. Getting back to Mass, and praying more. For everyone, it would mean forgiving grudges we've long held, etc.

3 days though... some of these secrets are chastisements. Chastisement is punishment. Punishments, though deserved, helps us to get on the right path. Chastisement... though people don't seem to want to focus on this part... means people are going to die. I mean, I could be wrong, ask either of my ex-wives... I've been known to be wrong. But if people are going to die... shouldn't we have as much of those 3 days as possible to....pray and ask for forgiveness... so we aren't one of the ones kicking the bucket? I think so... I mean...yes... Be Prepared! But if you don't think even us prepared ones aren't going to be on our knees 24/7 for those 3 days you've got another thing coming.

So... I e-mailed EWTN... figureing they, the premier provider of Catholic news and info would have a plan for disceminating the news during those particular 3 days. I mean... this isn't just news, per se, but information. Like... in 3 days... this is said to going to happen. You might want to get on your knees and begin praying. I mean, its kind of like hurricane preparedness. You don't want to have to use your supplies, but there are times when you need to do so. For EWTN, I figured they wouldn't WANT to have to use a communication plan, but they may HAVE one...

I was wrong. They don't. Not only don't they, but they e-mailed me back and said it was "pre-mature" to have a plan for what to do in those 3 days.

Now, I'm confused. I've got information from Medjugorje, and there are messages from our Lady saying Be Prepared! And now I have conflicting information from EWTN, the leading Catholic news and information provider saying it is premature to Be Prepared! Boy this sounds an awfull lot like that e-mail I received earlier today saying that Chaos is imminent! But buy our 2 year subscription...

As for me... Here's my plan! I'm going to continue growing my tomatoes... and going to go to confession, I haven't been in a couple of months... and I'm going to watch for the announcement that will tell us that we've got 3 days... When that happens, I'll be e-mailing as many as I can. Honestly, I'd rather be the boy who cried wolf... than the man who cried from losing so many dear friends because they weren't prepared.