There are many people today predicting “the end of the world as we know it.” A band that was popular before alternative music was “mainstream” wrote a song about it in 1987. Since then, the discussion about “the end of the world as we know it” (TEOTWAWKI) has continued; it has crystallized into different camps of people with different philosophies about how things are going to “go down.”
I’m not going to go into great detail about these philosophies. Even the most obscure ones have become “mainstream” and through the magic of the Internet, a person can find out how to grow a field of non-GMO corn next to their bomb shelter cabin and use a bicycle-powered corn grinder to make corn muffins on a handmade rocket mass heater stove.
Please don’t think I’m poking fun at any of these ideas. I would like to burn wood here at The Coop, but the condominium by-laws forbid it. That’s why I’m getting my papers in order and planning to sell The Coop; I want to live in a place that is less congested and more “country.”
I read the works of bright men and women who have thought deeply about this topic; sometimes I get “askeered” about everything. When I have one of these moments, I tell my big brother and he is usually pretty good about helping me stay focused on what’s possible today. Just the other day he said:
“It’s good to be aware that at some point the Shit will Hitteth the Fanneth, but it probably won’t be today and if I was a betting man, I’d say it’s safe I’ll be able to complete my training this week. I think our class next Tuesday is safe, too.”
In the spirit of the possible, here are a few things that have happened or are happening today, as scheduled:
- One of my friends (who would like to remain anonymous) has crushed $10,000 of debt. Bravo! Debt is a curable disease; crushing it is one little step to freedom!
- The Junior League of Boston’s Decorator Show House opens to the public today! Congratulations to Elizabeth Tyminski for getting it done; I am pretty sure she will be looking cool as a cucumber today and greeting the first visitors in a way only she can do.
- I planted my garlic this weekend.
Stay focused and step forward today.
Julie-Ann Baumer 
Good on the garlic. Does it repulse zombies?
As I told your esteemed brother, while the music’s playing, you have to keep dancing. So it is with societal collapse. We won’t be the first civilization to outstrip its resource base and suffer painfully for it. It’s happened many, many times before. All you can do are the little things: sell your COOP, plant garlic, bury an AK-47 in the back yard with a few thousand rounds of ammo. One thing at a time.