Oh, hi. I'm back. Though absent from the internet, I have had quite a busy past two weeks. I had a bit of a depressive spell, brought on by the combination of turning 30, the weather going back to typical WI spring (cold), losing my childhood dog to old age, and - I'm embarrassed to admit - reading The Hunger Games. I know that's a pretty lame thing to have on the list, but you have to understand that I don't do well with apocalyptic/dystopic scenarios. They freak me out. For example, on New Years Eve I watched "After Armageddon" on the History Channel. It was a story of a family that survived a medical apocalypse, what came afterwards for them, and what they had to do to continue to survive. I had anxiety attacks for about two months afterward. Honest. I didn't know what was going on and I went to the doctor.
Just like any phobia, I know it's not a reasonable fear. I can't say exactly why it bothers me so much. I know what I'm watching/reading isn't real. I just feel like it's a little too close - like one misstep and we could all be there.
In the history channel show (which apparently you can watch all of on YouTube. Go ahead, click on it. You don't even need to watch the whole thing. Just listen to the announcer tell you this isn't a real emergency. That voice gets my heart racing), one of the commentators talks about the year 2000, when London was brought within three days of running out of food by a protest over fuel prices. Lord Ewen Cameron (Baron Cameron of Dillington), who was, at the time, a member of the UK Government's Round Table for Sustainable Development, said "The nation is just nine meals from anarchy."
And he has a fancy name. So he must be right.
Lord Cameron was talking about a very specific situation. There were literally three days worth of food. The truckers bringing in more food were protesting the high price of gas, and therefor no more food was coming into the city. So, three days x three meals per day = 9 meals.
But aren't we always nine meals from anarchy? I mean, really, how much would it take? What's stopping us all from rioting? I'm willing to bet you've never missed nine meals in a row. I haven't, and I used to have an eating disorder. Three days; not a single bite to eat. How hungry would you need to be to start stealing? And what do you do when there's no food in the stores to steal?
And when the power goes out, and the water stops running, what then? Do you know how to sanitize water to make it drinkable?
(As a side note, I wanted to see if Ewen Cameron was related to Prime Minister David Cameron, or if everyone in England just has the same last name. The only article I could find connecting the two also said, and I quote: "British Prime Minister David Cameron is the scion of the Judeo Masonic satanic cult (the Illuminati) that secretly rules England and the rest of the world." So I think I'm not going to trust that article as being completely reliable. But, props for using the word "scion" in a sentence not about The Matrix or a car.)
What freaks me out the most is how distanced we are from our food. What would happen, for example, if the food trucks really did stop running? When the grocery stores and restaurants run out of food, where do we go? I could be all smug here and say I know farmers, but it's not like they're walking to the farmer's market. Nor am I. With the exception of my well stocked pantry and freezer, I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I don't have a garden to plant if the farmers don't bring plants to the market. I don't know how to hunt, and even if I managed to catch something, I wouldn't know how to clean it unless it was a fish. We've done such an amazing job of separating the stages of food production - specifically in terms of meat. Raising, slaughtering, butchering, packaging, transporting, and finally cooking. Someone different does each step. And, even when buying local, there's distance between the steps. How many people really know how to do all of them?
In Wisconsin, maybe the deer hunters. But, even then, I think you send your deer out for processing. You field dress the thing, but you don't break it down yourself. I think.
Don't worry. This blog is not going to become a doomsday prepper blog. I'm not freaking out. I've moved past my immediate panic attack. If society really collapses into anarchy, I think all the prepping in the world isn't going to do a lot of good. We're all pretty much f'd. But every now and then, when I let my brain slip into "what if" mode, my worries are mostly food related.
So, yeah. Hunger games freaked me out a little. And the ending made me cry like a tiny baby child. SPOILER ALERT: It doesn't end in the poly-amorous wedding I was desperately hoping for.
But, I got over it. I'm going to see the movie tomorrow. And I'll be making a big crock pot full of lamb stew with dried plums (what's the difference between dried plums and prunes?) And I used it as an excuse to buy a handful of books on edible and medicinal plants in the Midwest, preserving food without equipment, and saving and storing your own seeds. Which will both look fancy on my bookshelf and also be handy in case of an apocalypse.
Not a zombie apocalypse, of course, the only thing useful then would be a machete.
CROSS PROMOTION!
Please check out my dear friend Jeanette's review of the Hunger Games on her blog, the Mundane Adventures of a Fan Girl. And make sure you get all the way to the bottom and watch the Muppet's/Hunger Games Spoof Trailer. Cause it's funny. My favorite part is the music at the end. And click around a bit. Drive up her total hit count.
Next post will be lighter, I promise. After a year without (really just with-less), it's time to talk about fish!
Have I mentioned that going to the aquarium always makes me hungry?
outstanding!! and thanks for the cross-promotion! :)
ReplyDelete