Confession About My Lack of Preparedness

A reflection to hopefully help you (yes I mean you!) feel better

My friend Brekke Wagoner (of the Sustainable Prepping Youtube Channel) and I are in the middle of finalizing our toolkit, 10 Weeks to Preparedness. And y’all, I have a confession: I realized while doing this how little preparing I’ve actually done myself. I’ve done a few things–we’ve got the water and food storage more or less down, but I have yet to put an emergency kit for our car together. In fact, my lack of preparedness is the whole reason I brought Brekke in, because she’s the preparedness expert and I’m that person dragging their feet because it’s overwhelming and kind of scary to think about. And she and I are quite politically aligned–meaning of the progressive variety (y’all gotta check her comments out in this USA Today article!)

Margaret Killjoy

wrote about this in her

Birds Before the Storm

post last week and I resonated with what she said so much. She gave some great tips on food storage, but acknowledged how she struggles “to find the right balance between expressing calm and urgency.” And also the impossibility of finding the perfect balance there. Because quite honestly, to prepare for disaster is also an act of having to imagine disaster. It’s the reason I have friends who just don’t want to think about it because it brings up so much anxiety. It’s also the same reason it’s hard for folks to put a will together, because you have to envision a world where you’ve died. That’s emotional and hard to do.

Over the years, since moving to Portland and thinking almost every day about the potential of the Big Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake I’ve gotten a bit better at just dealing with the emotions head-on myself, or at least compartmentalizing them (unless I’m stuck in traffic on one of the many bridges and then I’m often on the brink of a panic attack). But I know not everyone is in the same place. I also know that there are many people farther along on their preparedness journey who have loved ones that just don’t want to think about it. Margaret told me when we were chatting for her podcast, Live Like the World is Dying, a few months ago that sometimes she just slips some cans of food in her parents’ basement just for her own peace of mind. Sometimes that’s all you can do to help the people you love become a little prepared.

I write all of this to say that I’m still figuring this preparedness shit out as well and, perhaps, make those of you out there who haven’t prepared yet feel a little better. It’s funny because writing this Substack and working on this book, a lot of people come to me thinking I’m ready for whatever comes. And, true that I’m probably more prepared than most Americans. But not nearly as much as I should be. Like anything–and kind of like my recent post–preparedness is a spectrum. And what you might find is that many of you might be more prepared than you think (e.g., those of you Costco shoppers or those of you neighborhood social coordinators), it’s just a matter of seeing what you’re already doing as preparedness.

For me, I’m using this series that Brekke and I are creating to get myself in gear and have a little accountability to help get me to the next steps of preparedness. Maybe that’s what you need, too!

We’re really working to make it palatable and not too overwhelming for you all. So if preparing for an emergency (any emergency, from big to small), the series we’re putting together might be for you. The first of the series (coming out April 5th) will be available for all subscribers, but after that, the toolkit is only for paid subscribers. I cannot wait to get my ass in preparedness gear alongside you all!

Here’s a little thing-y I put together to get you excited–and feel free to share this with your friends and family and whoever you think might need that extra nudge (hey, get them a gift subscription while you’re at it!)