Survivorship

Note: This post assumes the inevitability of societal/planetary collapse; if you are not a member of that school of thought, it might be a waste of your time to go any further.

Survivorship.
Here are a few questions to cogitate on:

   1st (& biggest) question. Setting aside your basic fear of death, why would any of us want to survive a collapse?
 I always said it was because I wanted to give my kids a fighting chance to go on. Now I mostly think that they have their own destiny that I may not have much chance to affect...so it is most probably because my ego is still striving to be the "smartest guy in the room", and that surviving past the point that most exit would be some sort of victory, although, likely a Pyrrhic one.
 To have been the one with the most foresight, the best ability to assemble small bits of data into a jigsaw puzzle of incredible complexity, that allowed me to make an educated guess at what was coming before it came. (Although I do like the idea that I can be a sort of lifeboat, and achieve the small scale community life I have always craved.)

  Why Survive? 
You have to answer this question for yourself before you commit to the hard work and sacrifice it will take to put yourself and your family in any kind of position to weather any given number of storms. Find your reason, and be sure that it will power your resolve. (I have more to say on reasons, but let's leave it at that for now)

 Could you be happy without the world we live in now?
I see many folks these days who live a large portion of their life in the virtual world. The idea that world could disappear nearly overnight is almost inconceivable to them. Many of us are comfortable enough past the point of meeting needs that we live a life of fulfilling desire...climbing Maslow's hierarchy. So, given that a life post collapse would be primarily one of just meeting basic needs, would you even want to be there?

   So, what are the qualities and mindset of a survivor?
Here are a few: (do you see these in yourself?)
1. Desire and resolve.
2. Has to actually enjoy working physically hard, for long hours, on the land.
3. Has to be physically hearty and hale.
4. Must be able to endure emotional pain, crisis, & loss without losing calm.
5. Have to have a strategy that allows one to endure tediousness.
Most of the readers of this have never been in a position where they were wholly dependent on their own skill set and physical labor to survive by growing their own food and providing their own heat, without a grid to make it easy. Neither have I. But I have done enough growing and preserving, and canning to know that it takes a whole lot of time and effort to put away a surprisingly small amount of food. (The hardest thing to grow on a small scale, in my experience, is grain.)
 Most of the post apocalyptic fiction and movies out there have martial conflicts of some sort or another, to make things exciting I think.  To me, the most frequent and devastating things to endure will be:
*  illness and injury, especially to one's loved ones, without the benefit of modern medical care and/or drugs.
* the tediousness of long hard work by hand to produce and put up enough food and firewood to last the winter, and then some.
* There may be predatory elements that could undermine one's efforts, but likely worse will be extreme weather without notice, and long term weather shifts like too much or too little rain, extra heavy snow and extreme cold, or poor growing conditions for food you are counting on to survive.

To close, I want to say that I think there is no shame in deciding that you are not cut out to be in that world, or that you do not desire to be in it, or that you are not capable of making it under those conditions. I am not sure any of us will be, given all the curve balls that might be thrown at us, and I am certainly not sure I am emotionally strong enough to endure the misery that will no doubt be involved.
 One could quite rationally decide to live for the now, and exit when the tome seems right with most others. I am still not sure (at 54) how one gains insight into one's destiny, in order to achieve harmony with one's path, but I do think meditation can help with that.
 One thing I am confident of is that it is better to see it coming and get to decide to make a run at surviving, than to have collapse jump out at you and have it's way with you.
Next: The time is Nigh.