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Be Prepared or Else – When I was a kid, I was a scout, specifically a cub scout.  I remembered the motto of our den, pack, and troop, was important, but simple:  Be Prepared.  So, it just goes to follow that if one was not prepared, he got the Or Else.   I’m now 61 years old and this slogan or motto comes to mind again:  Be Prepared!

So here we go…  I used to hear of folks holed up in remote areas of the USA and they called themselves Survivalists.  It always seemed to be some fringe of society and often in the news were portrayed as abnormal individuals with irrational fear of government or outsiders or people in general.  A lot of the time they were portrayed in the news in a negative light.  Some were so extreme in their views they were described as racist and likely were, they were called skinheads or white supremacists.  We are not talking about the latter.

Recently I heard the term Prepper, and I’ve been aware of a National Geographic show but never watched it, called Doomsday Prepper.  So, I guess it is along these lines my thoughts are currently flowing.  What happens when the proverbial Shoot Hits the Fan?  No doubt it will get a bit messy.

I experienced a Prepper many years ago.  My dad was a busy man, scratching out a living and busy busy busy.  I had chosen a different pathway, which also kept me busy busy too.  At church one day I met a fellow who was quite nice and even though the gap in our years were more like a Father and Son, we became friends.  George, I found out, was a prepper.  But he never called himself that.  Others would call George a conspiracy theorist maybe, a hoarder possibly, or someone shaped by the great depression, but really, to most, George was a regular guy.

Toward the end of his life as our friendship grew, he asked me a series of serious questions.  After much thought and years of relationship and joint projects and fellowship, George asked me to be executor for his estate.  I was surprised, but with little thought, I agreed to do this for him.  Fifteen years later, he passed away and it was then I discovered fully that he was a Prepper.

George knew the motto Be Prepared and he experienced the Great Depression so he was quite knowledgeable regarding Or Else.  I gave the eulogy at his funeral, but it wasn’t until I began performing duties as an executor, that I learned the extent of George’s preparations, mainly economic and financial in nature.  As the years have passed, it left my mind.  But in light of being prepared, no one topped George in my mind, he was very prepared.  It just did not happen, his crisis never came.  He was a good soldier, cheated death numerous times in WW2.  Here is to George, my friend the Prepper, RIP and well, thanks for your excellent example of Being Prepared!

Be Prepared or Else!