On Noticing Who Lives in the Cold

          

   I certainly have been busy.  I was surprised to see that it's been a few months since I had last posted here.   Life has been busy.   Regarding writing, there is not much new to report.  I am working on a third book but it is presently at the outlining and research phase.  I am making some good connections with regard to the literary world, but nothing I thought you would all like to hear about.
        
    Today I thought I would share this. A lot of writing comes as a consequence of simple living with ones eyes being open.   There is a place off the interstate highway where I occasionally get gasoline and eat at one of the restaurants there.  There is also a small shopping center.   Several months ago, I noticed that a young woman was waiting at the entrance to the shopping center.  She looked clean and well, yet had a sign which said something about being homeless and any amount being helpful.   From the vantage point of the restaurant, occasionally you can see someone give her one or two dollars.  Most people simply pass by.  Americans are fundamentally generous people, but in the past few years we have learned to be very discerning.    When I am in Richmond, I have noticed some people claiming to be homeless pocketing hundreds of dollars in a few hours in a good location.  I watched one of them charging his iphone by unplugging the soda machine outside the Target.   I noted that one of the homeless men had very expensive hiking boots, I'd seen at REI, and I noticed him again buying liquor at yet another shopping center later that day.  This has been such a problem there, that local governments have made "pan handling" illegal there.  This is curious to me as it seems to me to be a civil right, and because I would rather have people pan handling than robbing me. (But that's just me.)  The local government there was successful in making it illegal by claiming that it is a hazard to traffic, and on occasion, it is.      Americans have also learned to become jaded, and have learned that while we clip coupons and try to pay our bills, others are willing to stand with a sob story, ready to squander the money we give them, even later that day.
       
 At first when I saw the woman waiting at the interstate, I wondered if she had a similar story.  There is also some danger in approaching these people.  A percentage of them are mentally ill and have drifted from family members.  Approaching a schizophrenic, for example,  who ran out of meds a month ago, for example, can be extremely dangerous, because you don't really know what their delusions are telling them.  A person outside the science museum in Richmond was stabbed to death by a homeless man, as she walked her dog a couple of years ago.
        
  This time, I saw the  young woman I had mentioned  within the restaurant and since there were lots of people around, I felt fairly safe in speaking with her.  I told her that I don't carry cash, but that I did have a credit card and that I would be happy to take her to lunch there.   She was cautious, and a little afraid, but she agreed.   She ordered one thing from the dollar menu, and so I ordered a couple of additional things for her, as I had already eaten and was sipping on a giant diet soda.  I told her to sit down and I would bring the food.  I gathered the plastic silverware and straws and napkin.   When I brought the food, I asked her whether it was okay if I sat with her while she ate, as most people would rather have company when they ate.  She agreed.   I noticed then that her face was fairly windburned from being outside so much in the cold weather we have had.  She also seemed tired.   I spoke with her showing interest but without getting too personal in my questions.   She was in her thirties and until the last couple of years had a job in the city which is about fifty miles from there.  The place closed and this depleted her savings as she looked for a new job.  She did get another job which ended when that place closed also.  Since then, she has been unable to find another job although she has been trying hard.  She has used homeless persons services in the city a distance from here, but has been coming out to this area to get a small amount of cash before returning to the city periodically.  She also has a disability insurance case pending which has been slowed by her not having a legal address.   She is a young woman not unlike many of our daughters, but without the family and back up systems my own kids would have if something like this happened to them.
       
   I noticed a number of people and families who had just been to church were sitting in the restaurant were watching us.   I wondered why none of them inquired as to why a young woman was out in the bitter cold.   Did her car break down ?  Does she need to use a cell phone or call a taxi ?    I also noticed that the restaurant, where they know me, looked flabbergasted that I bought this young woman a meal.
        
  I know that we can't risk our lives by asking every homeless person what they need.  I know that we can't take everyone who is down on their luck out to dinner.   I get that those of us with small children with us can't endanger them by speaking to people who are homeless, and might have mental health issues.
However,  it struck me as surreal that an entire restaurant of people in Sunday best, who just finished worshiping Jesus Christ, who was a champion of helping those who needed assistance, looked at her as if she had leprosy.    She is a young woman with clean hair, wearing  outdoor clothing.  She may have been a former soldier.  Yes, the folks who fought on behalf of our nation, and then couldn't find work when they got home again.   She is someone's daughter.  It's not okay that someone's daughter is standing in the cold, isn't drinking enough water, and isn't eating properly.   I know we can't find her a job and an apartment by Tuesday.  I get that homelessness is a complex and multifactorial issue.   What I don't get is why we can't convey hope, humanity,  and encouragement, especially on a Sunday after so many of the people there who wore the "Christian uniform" and are eating on the way home from church.   Many studies tell us that most of us sit just a few pay checks from homelessness.  You'd think that most of us would be more mindful of that.
        
   I know I can't save the world.   But I think I will buy a large bottle of gummy vitamins at Sam's Club for Karen. I will give them to her the next time I see her.  I hope that you will do whatever you can within the framework of your own life,  too, when you see someone for whom you could do perhaps a small favor, conveying that they are not forgotten, and that they still sit within the family of humanity.   

Seeking Balance

        

     

                      I have spoken before about the many seasons of being a writer. This is true I suppose of any creative person.  There are times spent creating, then times spent polishing, then times spent pushing whatever work you have made and bringing it to as many others in the world as possible.  This can be difficult because the world can fall in love with a book, a song, or a work that you have created, just about the time that you personally are sick to death of it, and don't wish to discuss it anymore.  I understand the musical performers of my youth just a little better now.  Perhaps they didn't intend to seem short tempered or annoyed by seemingly stupid questions asked of them by non-creatives.  Still, the healthiest perspective to have is that when the world loves something you have done, then you should be as gracious as possible. Without the world asking about it, and at least some people liking it, you would not be able to continue the process of creation and bringing it to market at least as a public and a paying endeavor.

             I am still catching up on the many tasks on the farm I neglected while writing two books last year. I am still doing radio interviews in order to peddle my books, and stay relevant.  I am also thinking about the next two books, and I should begin the process of outlining soon. I am also enjoying the animals, the farm, and the Autumn.   I hope you are enjoying this season also.

Joys and Cautions on the Internet

      

The screen and keyboard can be a window to the world.

         This week my favorite singer in the entire world accepted my invitation to join me on Linkedin.   When I think about it, the internet has brought me a great many amusements and joys over the years.  I got an excellent job over the internet in the nineties.  I have made some wonderful friends over time on the internet, the kind who would drop everything for me.  When my youngest son died suddenly, my friends worldwide staged funerals and remembrance ceremonies for him, which coincided with the one we had for him there, on all ends of the Earth.  It was really helpful to know that while I was grieving the sudden loss of my son, that there was a remembrance ceremony with flowers and pictures taking place on an Australian beach, all because of connections and friendships made over the internet.  To help understand what had happened to my son, I was able to talk to an esteemed cardiologist in Barcelona, named Dr. Brugada. He assured me that Daniel had not died from the syndrome named for him, and that we needed to continue to look for answers.   Eventually,  medical articles we first read about on the internet in tandem with numerous consultations with pathologists yielded us the best answer on what had most likely happened to our son.  
       Much later, we saw the son we eventually adopted as a teen, at first on the internet.   We added dogs and horses to the farm courtesy of the internet.  Both of my books were brought to publication much faster than they would have been, because outlines, plans, chapter samples etc. occurred with the use of the internet.
             There is great power and great benefits to this new medium, but we must be careful.  Our privacy and potential for robbery, identity theft, and other crimes also exists there.  We must be careful not to write anything that we wouldn't wish to have published in a book, because once the material is out there, one may not be able to rebox it.  Young people especially need to carefully consider pictures they place on the internet.  A partying teen at college may not seem like the kind of employee a certain employer might want, even if you really are perfect for the position.
             Enjoy the internet, and be mindful.  Best wishes to everyone.

One Wet August

       

   This is the busiest week of the year for me.  Two of my sons have birthdays this week, as do I.  It's usually quite hot here this time of year and in addition to the birthday activities, caring for animals is usually harder.  Then there is the mad dash to have sufficient money for tuition to colleges or even to borrow it, and the concerns for textbooks which go up as quickly as the egregious American national debt !  This year we have about eight inches more rainfall than is normal for us, and this means that a lot of our outdoor activities have been impacted by so much water.   We usually try to squeeze in a vacation, although this year it will be economically unfeasable.   Still it is a great time of year.  In August we sit on the precipice of new projects.  Most of us who started school in September of each year adapted to the rhythm of stretching our souls each Autumn, and then coasting, just a bit, through the Summer. I am afraid I have been set to that template also.  I will continue promoting the books that are out there, continuing on ongoing projects, and outlining for a lengthy book which is coming off in the distance. Enjoy your Summer.

Avoiding Technology Dementia

         

There is a place for technology. But there is also a place for conventional books, conventional planning and thought, and for pencil and paper.

     I don't mind technology.  As a nurse I wrangled intra-aortic balloon pumps, external pacemakers,  Harvard pumps, and insulin pumps of different types.  I not only performed peritoneal dialysis, but I taught other nurses how to do it, and helped to write the policy manual on it, in the hospital I worked in at the time. The wide variety of blood glucose monitors available to the public has made the control of Type I diabetes mellitus, and Type II actually possible, and it has done so far more cheaply than most thought possible.   I actually like technology when there is something positive to be gained from it.   I like the alarm system in our farm house, both the one that was hard wired in when the house was built, and the wireless one we added later which has some amazing features, and cost much less than the original, both in terms of installation, and for monitoring.  I like technology when it benefits my family and I.    This actually isn't what's going on now for many people.   Smart phones, smart apps, kindles, mini tablets, etc. have all gone whole hog.   I might be one of the only people I know who actually keeps 35 phone numbers in my head.  Why should I leave everything to a Smart phone ?  If the phone malfunctions, data is lost, then no one will be able to phone anyone.  Mothers won't be able to call the landline at their kid's schools.  Adults won't be able to call their elderly parents. People won't be able to make a call to their doctors.  What is more insidious is that at least some of the people in their twenties today can't plan a project or make a "to do" list without an electronic device.  There are a few studies which indicate that excessive use of electronic devices does "soften the brain".  Not having to recall at least some data means that this function in our brain is lost, at least temporarily, just as a muscle we don't use, tends to atrophy or weaken.
              I have technology as it benefits me.  I have no intention of becoming a slave to it. I won't pay for the best and the brightest new gadget.  I will pay attention because if something which benefits me emerges, then I might have a use for it.  However, I will not pay to "keep up with the electronic Joneses" and I will not pay my way to technology dementia making electronics inventors and software developers wealthy, or shall I say, wealthier men.

A Culture in Decline

      

This is an actual house in Detroit, Michigan.  ( Picture: www.wired.com)

    Let me preface this by saying that I am not that old.  I may have kids in their twenties, but that's because I started having them just after college in MY twenties.  The math makes me the age a lot of people are when having their first kids in the US.   A great deal has changed in the United States since that time.  In 1981, when I graduated from college, there was a recession.  The interest rates for housing was 18% and we were very lucky to get an owner financed property as a first home for 14 1/2 %.   However, most people worked. If they did take some type of assistance, they did so reticently and under the pretext that as soon as things in the country improved, or they moved, or got out from under some type of crushing bill, that they would leave the rolls of whatever type of assistance they were temporarily receiving. There was an acknowledgement that assistance of some kind came from people, albeit indirectly.  One by one, the young families I met while in the hospital after my daughter was born, left the welfare rolls, became gainfully employed, and moved to stability, not only as a stable family themselves, but helping others as a recollection of how valuable it was to have needed assistance in a pivotal part of life.  Our neighbors up the street who collected welfare briefly when their first child was born found a way to stop collecting it, and eventually even gave up WIC.   It was heartening to see those who were sidelined from the recession in 1981 develop solid footing and join the rest of the world, planning, saving, raising a family and dreaming dreams.
            Somewhere along the road this changed.   Many Americans of all ages developed the idea that a welfare state smorgasbord existed in the US and they signed on for welfare, or aid to dependent children, WIC, Medicaid, Disability, free cellphone, free or reduced cost state prescription programs, and three church run foodbanks.   None of these programs are bad in themselves, but somewhere along the road people stopped thinking that they were a stop gap measure until the family once again found their way. They did not realize that while they stopped progressing and stalled in the welfare system, that others who might need it as a stop gap couldn't get it.  Our area food banks are empty most of the time, regardless of how many cans of canned goods the rest of us gather at Sam's Club to drop off to them.    This is not an issue of race.  White, Asian, Middle Eastern, African American, and Hispanic peoples all use welfare, some of them as a stop gap, and some consider it their new American dream     Somehow, in the last twenty years we stopped being a gracious nation appreciative for the help we might receive in emergencies, and became a gimme nation.
           It is not my intention to make anyone who must use one of these programs feel badly.  They exist because you paid your taxes to create such programs, but it is my intent to make those who think they are scamming the system feel badly.   Collecting such percs while others who do need them can't get them, is wicked.   Collect only what you need until you can take care of yourself.  To do anything else signals a culture in decline, and a nation spiralling toward its own death.

An Interview

           

In the internet age, one can catch the interview live, or later on, as most shows are archived on the internet, as was this one.

 

  It isn't enough to write books.  In order to get people to read them and to give them as gifts to friends and family members, it's important to do some interviews on radio, podcasts, or even television when you can get it. This is simply part of your commitment to get your book before as many people as possible, ideally because things you are relating or saying will help them.
                 John Wesley Smith is an excellent interviewer and is a bit like visiting an old friend, and this is why I actually enjoy being interviewed by him.  This however, is not always the case elsewhere, especially when the interviewer doesn't know much about the topics discussed in my books or hasn't really read them.

  
      I had promised to let you know when the radio program segment I taped with John Wesley Smith hit the air, and then, I promptly forgot.

        I have just taped a second interview with John, but this is the first one, taped in May and which aired for the first time on May 30, 2013.


Link to first interview is below:

Rational Preparedness Author, Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel, interviewed by John Wesley Smith on Destiny Survival.

      

  I will be doing another interview with John Wesley Smith regarding the books on August 1, 2013 at the same place.    We will be discussing basic strategies for evacuating rural properties and small farms in the face of an emergency. We will also discuss grief as it applies to major disasters, and some other subjects which relate to my books.