‘Compassion’ Is Also a Survival Skill
So, let me start by saying that appearances can be very deceiving. Here is a little story that I have to share that will confirm what I just said about appearances being deceiving. As many of you are aware, Ken and I have recently moved. As we are getting settled, I think about what we’ve seen, such as foreclosed homes, closed churches, protests etc. It made me think of a dear friend that we left when we moved. His name is Oscar, Oscar the Grouch. Well, at least that’s what Ken and I nicknamed him before we actually even met him. Everyday, without fail, he would walk our neighborhood, making his rounds.
He became Oscar the Grouch because he never smiled and if you waved at him while he was walking the neighborhood, he would just give you a very stern stare…thus the grouch. He always had a sort of curmudgeon look about him.
One day, as I was leaving church after mass, it was starting to rain. I got in my car and as I was buckling in, I saw him approaching my car. My first thought was what was he doing here, this is 5 miles from our neighborhood and I knew he didn’t drive, he had to be in his mid eighties! I rolled down the window and he asked if I was going home. I told him that I was and I asked him if he would like a ride. I knew that he lived a block from our house. “Oh, yes, thank you.” he said and he got into the car. “My name is Oscar.” I told him that it was nice to finally ‘meet’ him and I told him that my name is Lauren.
That was our first drive together. After that we went to mass together every week for years until I became ill last year. I would pick him up and bring him home. And he would always have something for me, perhaps a jar of mustard, or a clay pot, or a zucchini he grew in his back yard, there was always something. It was his way of saying ‘thank you’.
As Ken and I got to know Oscar, we realized he was not a grouch at all. In fact, he is hilarious and rather wise too. He is 85 years old now and I remember talking to him about a year before the recession officially hit. He knew it was coming and he asked me if I knew what he was talking about. I told him things were only going to get worse. “That’s right, so you better stock up.” he said. I promised him that I would, even though we already were prepping. But he knew. He knew exactly what was going to happen because he lived through it during the depression. He is going to survive. Here’s why.
As time went on, I learned that when he went on his daily walks, he was working his ‘network.’ He knew almost every neighbor. And if he didn’t trade items with them, then he got some neighborhood news and gossip. Maybe the neighbor was a widow and once a week he would bring her trash out to the curb. He had the neighborhood working to his advantage. When he was ill, I would see neighbors bringing him plates of food. Oscar will survive!
Becoming Oscar’s friend showed me what showing your compassion can do for yourself. For surviving this economic garbage we are all dealing with, may I suggest showing a little compassion to some of you elderly neighbors. Or maybe even some younger neighbors too. Your neighborhood may have to stand together against rioters and looters. It might be nice to have them on ‘your side’. And the Big Guy up in heaven will know. 
So next time you’re at the market and 5 lb. bags of potatoes are buy one get 2 free, think…can you give the two free bags to some of your neighbors?
Be Prepared. If you enjoyed this, or topics of current events risk awareness and survival preparedness, click here to check out our current homepage articles…
@ Lauren. Don’t forget either about our animal friends out there. As a person that has pets, too often people forget about the furry, feathered, scaly NEIGHBORS out there need our help also. When you have stored food that is no longer good for human consumption, there sure could be some animals that would appreciate it. If I have extra food that cannot be used anymore, there are squirrels, seagulls, deer, someone that can use it. Every year there are apples that have been damaged from bugs or something else, the deer are extremely happy to get the apples that I would have to throw in the garbage anyway. If you get free coupons for pet food there are plenty of people that can use this for their pets. Kindness and fairness towards animals are important to God also.
This of course does not make me some bleeding heart because I just can’t stand to see anything hungry, people to animals. If my dogs were hungry I would not hesitate to hunt a fat rabbit for them to eat. I like birds but I would shoot a wild turkey for food. In other words I personally will not let too much compassion get in the way of practicality.
I really want to expand on this as I can remember how someone on the Fat Albert cartoon Christmas special told this capitalist pig how he was a taker and Fat Albert was a giver. Those words lived for me ever since. I vowed never to be a taker because what I feel God or the positive energy or aspect of the universe is about is, not taking. I do share and it will be difficult not to share when bad times come around, but again the practical sense says you have to be frugal or NOT survive.
This is the hot topic button issue that I have heard many people say about preppers and survivalists that they are hoarders and selfish, even that they are rotten misfits of society. Oh does this upset me when some simpleton tells me this. Someone that prepares for their family is usually someone that is so concerned about the welfare and safety of their families that they personally go without the TOYS and other BS money wasting garbage so their families have a tomorrow if and when something happens. Preppers are usually very self sacrificing and go without much for preparation.
I look at at these shows on Nat.Geo. and these people are not dressed up in the “trendy” clothes or have elobrate furnishings, they are plain dressed and look like hard working people. I see people that feel that need to prepared and be ready. I see more compassion in them for their families and friends and for their future than I see in the common person that feels the only way to get the devotion of their children is to buy them whatever they want with usually credit that they don’t have. Just look at the local Christmas holiday season sales as evidence of this as most gifts would not come under useful and practical.
I see preppers as more compassionate and more real substance to them than the common person could ever hope to have. What is so sad and pathetic is that someone that is compassionate will have to deal big time with the confliction in them between being too compassionate with those people that have choosen by their free will NOT to prepare at all. Unless you have a literal warehouse of food you just cannot feed everyone, this includes hungry children at no fault who had parents that were too stupid to put away food for their kids. You would not see this in Switzerland or Israel in which their governments encourage everyone to be prepared.
Ken and Lauren, I have thought about this issue a lot about what do you do with the certain hungry children that will likely be abounds everywhere? I can close my door and turn a weapon on someone that has lived it up, had plenty of money, and chose to not prepare even by purchasing some extra cans of food that they could more than afford. What do you do though about the kids? You certainly cannot feed all the children, but anyone with an ounce of humanity in them has to feel much pain at the starving neighbor children. It makes you want to evacuate to the most isolated area you can get to, or burrow down deep enough into ground that you don’t have to face this.
What do you do that is also practical? You want to be compassionate but where do you draw the line so as not to compromise yourself. I have a care package for the neighbors but it is hardly anything that would be needed. I have given advice before on what you can tell people as so to protect what you have. I don’t have advice though on how you can handle the inner thoughts and your very conscience with turning away huge packs of hungry children that you could not possibly feed even if you tried. What do you do that is logical? How do you handle this inside of you? An extremely difficult question when you do have compassion. This kind of has me baffled.
That really is a painful thought. I wouldn’t presume to have and answer. The only words I have are of solace. The children that you see living around you are almost certainly the ones that will pull at your heart in times of strife. I think all you can do is encourage the few that will listen. Teach skills that they might not learn elsewhere. My wife and I always enjoy seeing other’s kids learn new things.
I have tried everything from helping our works resident ‘Food Nazi’ cafeteria lady, from carrying heavy objects, to refilling the high opening of the coffee machine to saying good morning to her since I started working there… The other week, I get the milk out of the fridge which is marked ‘Free to all’ as contractors pay for food items, and I poured some in my coffee and she screamed at me and protested that I used too much milk and carried on in her native Fijian tongue…
Not all people are the ‘grouch’ at first glances, but some people will be the ‘Food Nazi’ for their whole life…
And agreed that Preppers are 99% better, considerate, compassionate to others than, ordinary people for sure!!!
Not sure if this translates well but theres a saying:
Always be friendly and helpful to others, but dont let yourself be taken advantage. Only give what you willingly can and dont submit to taking by force.
Help everyone in need, but dont let yourself go to ruin while doing it.
Also, you should never “attack” first in verbal or physical way, even if you let yourself a bit vulnerable, because thats what humanity is about. Sometimes there might come a line where you have to choose survival or humanity, think before where your line goes.
one of the best articles i’ve read in years