I Found God

Now I'm hiding while He counts.


Sitting in the park on a warm Fall day watching the 4 year old and the baby play, it's difficult to think of reasons to go away for military training, maybe even go to war. Yet, at home, where I have a limited ability to think straight, I can think of so many reasons to leave.

I've been waiting to go to the MEPS, the Military Enlistment Processing Center, for my physical. My recruiter and I went to a local military base to get a "prior service" physical with the National Guard medics. They wanted nothing to do with it, as I had listed Mitral Valve Prolapse on my paperwork. They said to take it to MEPS. Recruiter sent off to the Air Force for my medical records, but only the enlistment inspection records came back. So we'll be doing paperwork that does not list it and let MEPS find it and figure out what to do.

Stupid paperwork. I finally have a date to go to MEPS, though, next Thursday. I'll be leaving on Wednesday night and getting checked into a hotel for the night so that I can get in the door at the crack of dawn or something. It'll be the first time I've ever gone away from the family for a night. They went to New Orleans without me, and it was pretty weird. We sort of live in each other's pockets.

In the meantime, my waiting time has been put to use getting my body and mind ready. Part of that involves figuring out how to explain to others why a semi-leftist non-conformist with authority issues would want to cut a long pony-tail off and join the Army at the age of nearly 40.

I don't really believe in God. Neither do I firmly believe in the utter nonexistence of God. Or gods. I can believe in some large imaginary things, however. I believe in the State. I believe in the Nation.

My personal feeling is that the citizen is the smallest unit of government. Among the "checks and balances" in our system of government is the voting citizen. I vote, even though I know that my one measley vote for or against something doesn't really matter. But I feel that in return for the advantages of living in our part of the world, there needs to be some reciprocity. I pay my taxes. I expect the roads to be maintained. I don't litter. I pick up trash in the park, and I check the playground for dangerous foreign objects.

One aspect of our lifestyle is something I call "paradigm of convenience." We don't like stopping for red lights. We get mad when the store is out of our favorite doughnuts. We take it personally when traffic slows to a crawl. Modern industrial society provides an unbelievable level of comfort and ease-of-use.

I'm a stay-at-home father of three little kids. I think about the fragility of society a lot.

Here's the mantra I chant to get organized for even a walk to the park:

"Water, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, sanitation, healthcare, small appliances, furniture, pets. "

My wife laughs at me, but it works.

Remember Katrina, people freaking out in New Orleans, trying to get out of town without a car, but trying to take dogs and televisions?

The first four items on my list (Water, food, clothing, shelter) are the "survival basics," the next four (transportation, sanitation, healthcare, small appliances) are "mission criticals," like the stroller, diapers, a box of bandaids, the camera the cellphone...The last two are "conveniences."

Pets are livestock you don't eat. If your dog is trained to protect you and your family, file it under "appliances," same as a gun. Otherwise, leave the dog at home.

Americans are dependent, like drug addicts, on conveniences, and dependent on not thinking about the basics. If a drunk hits a power pole in my neighborhood some cold winter night, I'm gonna be mighty cold come morning. There is no standard system to provide electricity to the furnace blower in the event of a power failure. We expect society, the city, the municipal utilities, to just "be there" as part of the shelter.

I don't expect to have to evacuate my town anytime soon, but I really freak out about having to join the "river of screaming meat."

Think about when the 4 survival basics really become an issue: when transportation has failed. Plane crash in the Andes? Wagon train through the Rockies? Guess what - you're eatin' long pork! Those are pretty extreme cases, but people starve to death and freeze to death and die of heatstroke in America every year. Old people, poor people, homeless "street people," natural disaster victims.

Rather than approach the issue of "fragile society" from a perspective of "victimhood" I'm approaching it from a perspective of personal responsibility. It isn't civilization's responsibility to take care of me, it's my responsibility to take care of civilization, starting with myself and my family. Remember, the flight attendants tell us in the event of an emergency to put our own oxygen mask on first, then do the kids. You can't help them unless you help yourself first. I extrapolate this as a life lesson.

Modern Liberalism wants government to take better care of the citizens. Modern Conservatism wants citizens to take better care of themselves, and government to back off. I'm glad foodstamps are available if I need them, but I try to keep the cupboards full at all times.

Do you have ten gallons of untainted water on hand at all times? I do - standing around to reach room temperature for fishtank changes. But if the pipes start running funky for some reason, I've got enough drinking and cooking water to last my family a few days.

I don't have a 4x4 truck, but I keep my minivan in good repair at all times. Okay, to be honest, I need an air filter and new wipers right now, but I'm gonna take care of that at the end of the month. But I'd trust my standard-issue red Chrysler product to get me out of town if I need to.

I'm going back to the Katrina lesson here, and my getting-out-of-the-house mantra: water, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, sanitation, healthcare, small appliances, furniture, pets.
Say it again.

How many people in New Orleans found themselves in a crisis because they lacked transportation? Suddenly, water, food and shelter became a big deal, and people who lacked transportation became a massive load on the system of local civilization.

Extrapolate for the continent as a whole. What's your local disaster type? Flood? Snow? Earthquake? Tornado?

America survived the Great Depression in part because we were still pretty rural, and even in urban areas people grew vegetable gardens, kept chickens, owned a horse.

Got Spinach? One supply point of one product becomes tainted, and it affects people across much of the nation.

Frozen pre-pattied hamburger anyone?
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So what are the real threats against our comfortable, convenient society? At the moment, Islamic have-nots, pissed off at "us" for a multitude of reasons. The "War on Terror" is a "4th Generation War." Small groups, non-state players, are attempting to change the attitudes and policies of large world-power players. Spain and Italy have withdrawn from Iraq. England may leave next. Some people think we're "fighting in Iraq so we won't have to fight them here." Poppycock. If we pull American troops out of Iraq, we'll tell them that terrorism works, and if we don't they'll just raise the ante. The game isn't over until all players stop playing.

The real threat is when they figure out how vulnerable we are at home. I have no desire to go to Iraq, or Afghanistan. I'll go do a tour if they send me, that's part of the deal. I'm not joining active-duty regular army. I'm not joining the Army Reserves. I'm joining the National Guard in my State. I want the training, and I want the responsibility. In the event of national disaster, natural or manmade, I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, or part of the workload.