It Takes a Worried Man to Sing a Worried Song

At first, there were only a few who were not shy about singing the worried song, Kathy a.k.a. Peak Shrink, Matt Simmons, Matt Savinar, Colin Campbell, Richard Heinberg, Tom Whipple, and James Kunstler to name a few. Initially it was easy to pick out the individual “voices” singing the worried song. Now instead of a trio, or quartet singing the worried song, it seems like a thousand voice choir singing the worried song. It is becoming harder to pick out the individual voices and the contribution they are making. But the message is loud and clear, we had better be gearing down for a radical lifestyle change. Thank you, all you early “worried song singers”, you have given us the most precious gift we can get, time. Time to think, time to adjust, time to prepare, time to learn, time to practice.

What is happening though is the choir singing the worried song is getting louder, and harder to escape. Sort of like the incessant Christmas carols one hears at this time coming from every direction in every conceivable location. It would be pretty hard to miss that Christmas is almost here. I am beginning to get the time is running out jitters, like when I have 16 shopping days to Christmas, and I haven’t got all the gifts yet, much less wrapped. But how many preparation days do we have left, before the oil decline tsunami hits us up aside the head? How long will it be before the MSM starts humming the worried song, and the general population starts noticing the tune? I have to start guarding my thought processes now, before the general population starts the peak oil preparation frenzy, and I get drawn into the crowd mentality and waste a lot of time, effort, and money on “stuff”.

Granted, there will be a need for some “stuff”, but like any prudent Christmas shopper, we need to make a list for lifestyle change. At the top of the list is ME. Some of the items under ME aren’t available on the aisles of Wal Mart. They include getting in better shape. What will be valuable is can you ride a bicycle out 5 miles from your front door and back without needing EMS and a tank of oxygen when you return? Can you build a fire without matches or a butane lighter? How? Are you eating a healthy diet? That doesn’t mean an extra helping of lettuce on your hamburger. Are you taking care of your body by regular daily exercise? Thirty minutes a day may make the difference as to whether you are a help or a burden to those around you. When was the last time you went to the Dr.? Dentist? Are your shots up to date? It will be hard enough to cope with what is coming, if we have a disease or toothache that could have been prevented today instead of suffering through in the future. Also under the ME category on your list is getting your mind in better shape. I need to develop an understanding of what could happen to me and my family so that I can ask the questions now, and formulate my responses as best I can while not under duress. Reading all the web sites one can find everything from Mad Maxx scenarios to big happy communes singing around the campfire. The optimist in me wants to believe in a slow gradual transition into a simpler life style, but it may be more like 1973, when you get up one morning and your world has changed.

The next item on your list should be OTHERS. That is your spouse or significant other, your family, your friends, and your neighbors. What skills and talents will you bring to them? What skills or talents might they have that will be important to you? We are about to close out 2010 this month. What new skill or talent did you learn or enhance this past 12 months that will be helpful to others in a decreased fossil fuel lifestyle? Nothing? Why? That is why I find the Peak Oil Blues site so informative. It helps to have others that you can learn from and share your mental and physical preparations and responses with. It is easy when we are in this preparation stage singing the “worried song” to be so focused on tomorrow, that we ignore today. That will be disastrous. The farmer who is so focused on where he will store the future harvest, and neglects the weeds that start growing today, will have nothing to sustain themselves in the long winter. Who can you develop partnerships with so that you may mutually assist each other on a daily basis? Developing those partnerships begins today, not when you have the need in the future.

What I find distressing to me today, is that I am not hearing the choir singing one “worried song”, but I am hearing another choir singing a different “worried song” that is intertwined with the first. It is the “worried song” of economic collapse. My mind could just about handle the peak oil “worried song”, but it is really straining to fathom economic collapse’s impact on my life and those around me. Peak oil deals with production of mostly physical things, gasoline, oil, fertilizers, plastics, food production, medicines, clothes, shoes, etc. Peak oil will have a somewhat predictable decline cause and effect relationship, i.e. at a certain level of availability, you will probably have this, but not that. Economic collapse, on the other hand, is very unpredictable. It also affects physical production of things. Its effects on future oil production can only be guessed. So its effects on me and my family will be hard to fathom in advance. This gives me more anxiety than the energy crises. There can be alternatives to no heat or supermarkets, but what is the alternative for paying your property tax, even if you own your home outright?

For a while, energy and economics were in a close race as to which would affect us sooner. Now it appears economics is hitting us hard, and we are only in the first round. So where do I find myself as I look to the end of 2010? A worried man, singing two worried songs, and trying to understand what the words all mean.

Peak Oil Blues