Sustainability is Your Best Security Blanket

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 37

Sustainability is Your Best Security Blanket

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is episode # 37 which is called Sustainability is Your Best Security Blanket. 

It is basic human nature that at a subconscious level, all humans crave normalcy, routine, and familiarity. This is especially true during a disaster or some other stressful event. Small children carry stuffed animals and security blankets for comfort. As adults we mentally carry security blankets in the form of “having our own place”, or “waking up in our own bed”. We also find security in starting our day with our favorite coffee, tea, or some other food item.   But what would you do if someone or something took your security blanket away from you and you loss all sense of normalcy? Well, for most of us that would cause an enormous amount of stress and fearfulness. But, did you know there is a way to keep that from ever happening.  

I want to start this episode by asking a question. When you were a child, did you have a security blanket? Or maybe a stuffed animal that you carried around with you? Or some other item that was the one thing that as long as you had it, you felt safe and secure.  Well for me, it was a big, giant, over sized teddy bear with only one eye because the dog chewed off the other one. His name was Junior and he was about half my size.  

I remember many years ago I was on a business trip and was flying through Charlotte, NC. As I was walking through the concourse, some airline representatives had a table set up where they were promoting a Mastercard that was associated with the airlines. If you filled out the application and signed up for their program, you got 50K frequently flyer miles and a free gift. I had several choices, one of which was a small teddy bear, which made me laugh of course. But one of the other choices was a small blanket. 

At the time Annette’s son Erik was really young so I chose the blanket so he could use it when we traveled.  Well that was 15 years ago and he still has that darn thing and he still takes it sometimes when we travel.  It’s a very warm blanket by the way. So for many years that was his security blanket. And this illustrates a very good point about human nature. 

So, what are your security blankets? What are the things in your life that give you a certain amount of comfort and security and a feeling of normalcy? And, what would you do if someone took all of that away from you. In other words, what would you do if someone took away your security blanket? 

You know I am one of those people that thrives on change,  variety, and challenge. That is part of the reason I do the type of work that I do, which is traveling and working with different hospitals, as well as working on my blog and podcast and of course taking care of the homestead. I enjoy the variety. I enjoy working with different people. I enjoy the challenge of the unknown in many ways. However, that is not how most people are.  

In fact, it is basic human nature that at a subconscious level, all humans crave normalcy, routine, and familiarity. This is especially true during a disaster or some other stressful event. Small children carry stuffed animals and security blankets for comfort. As adults we mentally carry security blankets in the form of “having our own place”, or “waking up in our own bed”. We also find security in starting our day with our favorite coffee, tea, or some other food item. And many people find security in going to work everyday and punching a time clock or  logging onto a work computer. 

But as I am producing this episode we are about 1 1/2 years into the pandemic. And in many ways, that pandemic has completely disrupted our routine and normal way of life. But this of course is an anomaly. Pandemics don’t circle the airport and land in our backyard on a regular basis. Neither does the apocalypse, which so many people seem to focus on. 

There are a number of things in the world that have the potential to destroy and completely disrupt our societal structure as we know it. But these types of things do not happen on a regular basis. So I do not give it a lot of thought. I of course do not totally dismiss the possibility of such things but as I said I do not give it a lot of thought.  

But what I do see on a regularly basis is hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires, flash floods, major snow storms, and other acts of nature. In fact, as I am producing this episode, there are over 100 major forest fires in the United States. There have been flash floods and major mudslides in Colorado which has resulted in loss of life and loss of property. In fact, some highway are closed indefinitely. 

Furthermore, these types of events occur much more frequently than the end of the world. This is why I think much more about this type of event than I do about the end of society as we know it. And maybe it is human nature to focus on huge, single events, that perhaps make history, or maybe even change the course of history. These types of things of course get your attention and certainly stir a lot of emotion.  

But again, natural disasters or major weather events certainly have the ability to complete disrupt your lifestyle and take away your security blanket. That being said, what would you do if someone or something took away your security blanket? What would you do if your life was suddenly and totally disrupted and you lost all sense of normalcy and security?  

Well, in my opinion, our modern culture is robbing us of our security blanket. This form of robbery is very subtle.  It slowly slips into our lives in the form of having very little control over our basic necessities. Yet many of us accept this as a way of life and never give it much thought. It’s easy, convenient, and you never have to worry about anything. Or do you?

Most of us never think about how things can and do suddenly change without our permission. Obvious examples are a car accident, an unexpected illness, or someone you know suddenly dies. But what about a natural disaster, a sudden storm that takes out the grid for several weeks. That is not something you can control. What if for some reason you no longer had easy access to fresh water, food, or any other basic necessity?

This lack of control over many things in our lives is what robs us of our security.The simple fact is that the vast majority of us are completely dependent on a huge infrastructure for our daily needs. We take it for granted that we have easy access to all the basic necessities such as electricity, running water, and fresh foods. However, the ease and convenience of our daily lifestyle produces a false sense of security. We are convinced that we are in control. At face value, this appears to be a wonderful lifestyle. But the ease and convenience disguises a very significant underlying problem.

The underlying problem is that as long as someone else is in control of your resources, they are in control of your life. Do you actually have a choice over what you pay for the basic essentials of your everyday life?

Things in our world can change very rapidly.  We are so connected that we instantly hear about those changes as well as all the bad news. It is common place to hear about another disaster, the rising cost of living, global warming, the next recession, or another oil crisis. We are constantly bombarded with things that are out of our control.

Furthermore the general perception of the public is that if something major were to happen, if there was an actual national emergency, that the government is going to swoop in and take care of us. They will rescue us, guard us, and make sure nothing happens. Well I hate to tell you but nothing could be further from the truth. 

In the event of a national emergency, the government is first going to protect the national and state leaders. They are going to guard our national borders. They are going to protect vital portions of our national infrastructure. Most likely we would be under Marshall law. Once all of these things are safe guarded, then they will begin to think about the people. You have to remember that when Hurricane Katrina struck and the Super Dome was being used as an emergency shelter, it took the Federal Emergency Management Agency 5 DAYS just to get fresh water delivered. 

To make matters even more challenging, and for the reasons I stated above, I think there is a general loss of trust in our societal structure and government to perform its most basic function, which is of course to take care of the people. There is fear that our very economy and social structure will not survive in its present form. Additionally, more and more people are tired of a consumer culture, heavy debt, and mortgage induced wage slavery. People are also growing weary of high utility bills, the general stresses of modern society, and a general loss of personal privacy and freedom because we live in a surveillance society.

Consequently, your security blanket is gone. You are not actually in control of your life. Someone else is making decisions that affect you and you have no voice in the matter.

I cannot solve the world’s problems. I cannot control or solve the issues of a vast and complicated infrastructure. Nor can I influence a giant government that no longer seems to address the needs of the people. And it is certainly not possible to control the price of oil.

But, what I can control is how I live everyday. I can control my dependence on others for many of my daily needs. It is possible to downsize my life, live frugally, get out of debt, pay off the mortgage, and daily focus on the skills of self reliance and sustainability.

You see part of the underlying problem is that our consumer society pushes us to have more and more possessions. This of course keeps us spending money and keeps us in debt. Consequently many of us are slaves to our lifestyle. We work a job that we may not like. We have a boss that we do not like. We swim along neck deep in debt. We truly have no control over our lives. Good bye vacation. Goodbye savings account. Good bye personal freedom. 

In contrast, a self reliant and sustainable lifestyle pushes us  toward simplicity. Just for the sake of comparison, let’s think about two different people. Person #1: A guy who works a job making $200K a year, has a nice big house, brand new cars, several children, lives from paycheck to paycheck, is always under a tremendous amount of stress, and has very little free time.  Person #2: A guy who lives in a small, basic house on some acreage. He works 2 to 3 days per week and make less than half what the other guy makes but he is debt free and has no other major obligations in his life.  Consequently, he takes 3 to 4 months off per year to travel and enjoy life.  

Now, which person would you rather be?  

Now herein lies the rub. 

The more have, the more you have to maintain. The more you have, the more you have to pay others to help you maintain what you have. The less you have the less you have to worry about. The more basic your lifestyle the more likely you are to be able to provide things for yourself. 

There was a time when the average person was able to provide for themselves. People had large gardens and did a lot of home canning. The average family had a barn or some sort of workshop at home to make and repair things.  There were large farmers markets. People traded and bartered. The average person or family did not make a purchase unless it was absolutely necessary. 

Now compare this to our modern lifestyle. Much of what we need on a day-to-day basis is manufactured by someone else. We have to work to make the money needed to purchase those things. Then when they break we throw them away and purchase another one, which of course keeps us working so we can pay for something else. 

But this is the life that we have become accustomed to because we are addicted to convenience. This becomes our norm and as long as things stay more or less normal we feel comfortable and secure. Our lifestyle becomes our security blanket. However, I would contend that this is nothing more than a false sense of security. And it is a false sense of security because as we all know our world can change very rapidly and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. The COVID pandemic has proven that. 

However, there is something you can do about that. You can downsize your life, get out of debt, live frugally, learn the skills of self reliance and sustainability and incorporate those skills in your everyday life. 

Now remember the example of the two guys I gave you just a little bit ago. The one making over $200K per year and other guy making less than half that amount yet have a tremendous amount of personal freedom.  That is me comparing myself to one of my friends and that is exactly the difference between him and I. He makes a tremendous amount of money and yet is stressed all the time. I live a simple, basis lifestyle because that is what suits me. And because of that I have a tremendous amount of personal freedom. 

So, that is in fact what I do. Everyday I walk further down the road of self reliance and sustainability. Consequently, I am debt free and have a tremendous amount of personal freedom.  By doing so I gain a little bit more confidence that I can take care of myself. This confidence makes me worry a whole lot less about what else is going on in the world that is out of my control. This is because I manage a good part of my own resources. 

I remember when the pandemic first started getting into full swing. Annette’s son Erik was taking in all the hype about what was going on in the world.  In fact, he started getting a little worried about it and ask me one day, “What are we going to do if the world falls apart?”  I explained that there is nothing we need to do. The resources we have at our immediately disposal are sufficient to sustain us for several years. In addition to that, we have the green house and the ability to obtain as much meat as we need.  In many respects, our self reliant sustainable lifestyle protects us from many things in the world that we cannot control.  

And that is the most important point I want to bring out in this episode. If you take the time and effort to set up a lifestyle of self reliance and sustainability, you actually have much more control over your life. This is simply because you have much more control over your day-to-day resources.  So I would encourage all of my listeners to focus more time and attention to the things that you can actually control, and this is how you live day-to-day. And one of the most important choices you can make is to live sustainably. 

Make the right choices for yourself and live sustainably. Live sustainably for long enough and you will come to a very important realization.  And that realization is that a self reliant  and sustainable lifestyle is the best security blanket.

This is your host Patrick signing off until next week.  If you enjoyed this episode then please take the time to leave me with a review.