apocalypse « Robin Writes

Boy, it’s been an interesting week around here. I won’t go into the whole long, sad story because unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re familiar with the details and the start of this fiasco.

In spite of underlying racism, however, if Mike Brown had only followed directions when Officer Wilson told him to move out of the street, things could have been very different.

Since our illustrious prosecutor decided, for whatever reason, to wait until after dark to announce the verdict, and our idiot governor was basically useless, a lot bad stuff went down. Riots, arson, looting—and you can say, all day long, that “most” of those arrested were from outside the area, well, someone let them in; someone said, hey come on down and let’s do some shit. And just because “most” arrested were not from here, it doesn’t mean local peeps weren’t involved.

Like Louis Head. Mike’s stepdad. What a loser. Nope, I’m still not racist—by any definition, he’s a loser. Mike’s dad, Mike Sr., well, he’s a good guy as far as I know. Jury’s still out on Lesley McSpadden—I’ve heard a lot of things, but I’m not impressed. Yeah, jury. No pun intended. Ha.

Why bring up Mike’s family? Because they’re front and center:

Mr. Head incited a riot, calling for arson.

Mr. Brown called for peace.

Ms. McSpadden, well . . . She got all up in people’s faces over T-shirt sales; she went to Geneva to talk about torture (WTH?). I get the grief, the horror, the loss. But good Lord, woman, grieve already—take the time to think about your son, get him a headstone for crying out loud, and get the hell out of the public eye.

Sorry, but I have to think that if it were my son, my first move wouldn’t be hiring an attorney and starting a bunch of crap. Nope. Seriously—why hire an attorney?

And that guy? Well, I’ve heard him speak. Seems like a nice guy. But he was griping about not being notified of the decision ahead of time. Um, dude. It’s not a civil case. It was a criminal case. That means that the state prosecutes (if it does) on behalf of the state; the parties are the state and Officer Wilson, not YOU and YOUR CLIENTS. Duh.

So, we still have peeps running around yelling, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Even though, according to the official report, that didn’t happen. Whatever.

Look, all this rioting and looting and marching and chanting and stopping people from working and traveling and everything else does NOTHING. And we’re all sick of it.

Learn to write, learn to speak. Stop blaming everyone else for every single thing. Get a job, go to work, be smart about your money. Run for office. Just know that there are no shortcuts, you don’t just make a difference because you WANT to, you have to work for it. It takes time. You can be angry all you want, but you can’t just fly off the handle. Leaders don’t do that. Be a leader. Work behind the scenes, or go on TV—but if you’re going to represent, be rational and reasonable and actually do the work.

It’s important.

Based on the events of the last few months, I’m starting to wonder if I’m mentally tough enough to handle SHTF. Three months of protests, some violence, lots of rumors. Rumors perpetuated by the media, hell, even started by them . . .

I’ve written a lot of articles on stress and its effects, and let me tell you—I’ve lived it, too.

But Robin, someone will say, you don’t live in Ferguson!

Nope, but my son goes to school very, very near those city limits and the whole thing is happening about eight miles from our house. As the crow flies, but who thinks a mob would limit themselves to the highways?

Social media doesn’t help. Back in the old days, we’d watch the evening news and shake our heads, probably getting a little tense, and have some discussion. Maybe burn up the phone lines. Now, with Twitter and Facebook, et al, we hear everyone’s thoughts, opinions, news stories, and flat-out made-up crap. Repeatedly.

It’s enough to drive me to drink. Wait, that’s a good idea. Hang on a sec.

Disclaimer—I’m writing this Saturday evening, not at 6:00 a.m. when you’ll be reading this.

And “the” media, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. I’ve often decried the state of journalism, and this holds true. They simply cannot get their acts together. At all. None of them. And it’s a constant barrage of crap.

Okay, enough ranting. For now.

But seriously, you have to get a grip when SHTF. You can be prepared, yes, that’s good. Great. Wonderful. But you’ve seen that cartoon about the little old lady, right, the one where she tells the officer that she has all these guns in her car and he asks what she’s afraid of? She answers, “Not a damn thing!”

So if you’ve prepped, you’ve got no worries, right? We have food and water; we have weapons; we have a plan to stay and a plan to go. No problem, right?

Wrong.

It’s the waiting, the not knowing, that’ll kill you. Well, maybe not literally, but the mental stress and emotional angst will certainly lower your physical defenses. You might be tempted to sit around, doing nothing, reading the news, wandering from room to room, napping. Drinking. Ahem.

But this is a mistake. You need to eat right, and rest enough, and keep your mind occupied. Sure, keep up on what’s happening, you have to, that’s part of it all. But don’t obsess and take a break now and then.

I have to tell myself to back off, shut it down, and go do something. Preferably something physical to burn off all that extra adrenaline. Because you produce that stuff by the metric ton when you’re stressed and waiting and anticipating, and you need some physical activity to get rid of the excess.

Of course, when you stop to take a breather and check the news again, that’s when something new and worrisome crops up. It’s a vicious cycle.

You have to regain your focus, you have to discipline yourself. Over and over. And then again.