For the past week, I've been listening to episodes in a podcast that looks at Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, chapter by chapter. The first 6 episodes were recorded before the pandemic. This morning, I've been listening to episode 7, which is rooted in the book, the pandemic, and how to prepare for an unknown future.
Chapter 7 is the one where the main character creates a go bag, a survival pack, after she realizes that at some point she may have to go quickly. The podcast talks about what we keep in our go bags. Of course, some of us are already moving with our go bags. As Toshi Reagon says, "I travel with a bag that doesn't assume I will come right home." Her go bag is a back pack.
I think back to 2005, that tough year of hurricanes and disruption of all sorts, that year where I realized that the federal government and local authorities might not be able to protect us or help us recover. Even after hurricane season was over, I kept my supply of hurricane water, plastic containers full of water, in the bathtub. It was not too long after the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the color coded threat system, and again, the knowledge that the hugest army in the world might not be able to keep attacks at bay. If the water supply was disrupted, I would be ready. For several years, I never let the gas tank of the car dip below half a tank--I wanted to be ready to go if I had to leave. I even kept some gallons of water in the hatchback of the car.
I think part of the problem of the current age is that it's hard to know which apocalypse is coming and how to prepare. The podcast talked a bit about the idea of not only having a physical go bag, but also getting and keeping our spiritual selves in shape so that we can face whatever is coming. What are our core beliefs? What will keep us sustained no matter what apocalypse comes?
They also talk about the core beliefs of our team/pod/friends/family--are we all working towards the same goals? If something happens, will we react the same way and make the same types of decisions? As adrienne maree brown says, "If you're not [an abolitionist], we're probably not gonna roll together, because the first time we have a conflict, we're gonna feel wildly different about what to do next."
They also talk about how to build muscle memory so that we have less thinking to do--it's built in--"here's what it looks like to go." If you had 10 minutes to get ready to go, what would you grab and why? It's a game we could play with our families to train our children, but it's also an important thought process for all of us.
This morning, I wrote this tweet, "I've been writing a poem, but also listening to episode 7 of this podcast on Octavia Butler's 'Parable of the Sower,' which feels like one of the most important/useful discussions about preparing for the future that I have ever heard."
It also has a spiritual dimension in a non-traditional way. Listening to this podcast, especially this episode, has that kind of spiritual essentialness that makes me want to hear it again and again, with a sense that God is speaking through it.
At the end, adrienne maree brown says, "What belief systems have you learned through observing life, . . . What is the truest thing you've observed, and have you organized your life around it?"--one of the most essential spiritual questions.
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