Allyson

Monday Memories is a series of blog posts from Way Back When, that Chris and I wrote for another blog we had. I hope you enjoy!

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Written by Chris, Oct. 21, 2012

The rule of threes is a method of looking at how you choose what to do in a survival situation or when preparing to meet a survival situation. The rule of threes explains in simple terms the order in which things should be done to survive and thrive.

• Three minutes without air
• Three hours without shelter
• Three days without water
• Three weeks without food
• Three months without hope

Just like the ABC of First Aid (airway, breathing, circulation) the rule of threes states what happens first. With ABC you need to check and make sure the airway is clear. If the airway is not clear breathing isn’t going to happen. Next you check breathing. If they are not breathing then working on anything else, no matter how gory, isn’t going to save the life of the victim. Only then do you work on circulation which includes controlling bleeding.

Three minutes without air

You are just not going to survive if you aren’t breathing. It doesn’t matter if you have a 6 year supply of food, water and other supplies, you will be dead long before you use a fraction of them.

For the sake of this list we include First Aid within the “air” category. The first thing to do is to take care of injuries. Make sure people are all breathing, that the bleeding has been stopped, that the broken bits and pieces are fixed up and people are on the way to healing.

Some things to consider in your “air” category:

• Bandages
• Medical kit
• Inhaler
• Epi-Pen
• Aspirin
• Prescription Medications
• Splints
• wrapping tape
• sling
• Litter
• tourniquet
• over the counter medications
• Anti-itch creams and powders
• Breathing Mask for CPR

Some skills to include with your “air” category:

• CPR (new and old style)
• Advanced First Aid
• Wilderness First Aid
• How to identify plants with medicinal properties
• How to use EVERYTHING in your First Aid kit(s)
• How to clean and close wounds
• How to set broken bones

Three hours without shelter

This doesn’t seem to be a priority for most people even if it should be. People just don’t think this way. Most people jump straight to “water” but you will die of exposure long before you will die of thirst. Shelter is that important.

If you don’t think of shelter as that important, consider spending a couple of hours outside in the winter without a coat, or a few hours in the sun of the great plains (or even an open field in New England) without some sunscreen and a hat. Think about falling into the water on a cold fall or spring day. Shortly after this thought experiment you’ll be wishing for good shelter.

Shelter includes all forms of shelter. Everything from a humble pair of warm dry socks to a house is part of the concept of shelter. Shelter also includes fire. A good fire can turn a poorly constructed lean-to into a safe haven.

Shelter starts from the skin and moves outwards. Shelter is having the right clothes for the environment you are in. Socks, pants, shoes, underwear, shirts, scarves, hats, mittens or gloves are all things that should be considered.

For the females reading this, consider the shoes you wear when you go out. Those beautiful 3 inch heels that make your legs look so fine are not going to last five minutes if you have to start hiking and your feet are not going to last much longer. Those beautiful painted toenails showing through your open toed shoes are not going to keep you warm. That short skirt is not going to keep the wind from blowing up where you don’t want it. Make sure your shelter includes a change of clothes so that if you are in your dress/work clothes and shoes you have something that will shelter you.

Once your body is directly sheltered you need to think about holding heat in. Coats and jackets are a good start and most people actually have the right coat/jacket for the environment they are in. Even if what is under that coat isn’t, the outer layer will be good enough.

But what if you have to snuggle down over night in a car that has slipped off the road? Then you need something more. A sleeping bag is your best bet but even if you don’t have that a good blanket that you can wrap around you will go a long way. Be sure to consider the “space blankets” both as a blanket and in the form of a sleeping bag. Space blankets weigh mere ounces and are great at keeping your body heat in.

My personal preference and suggestion is an ugly one. That is a combination of a US military issue rain poncho with liner. Forgetting about the poncho as rain gear, the USGI poncho and liner are designed to attach to each other and then snap up one side to create a sleeping tube. I’ve tested it, as has my son. It works for this overweight old man and for my very much in shape young son. The liner is very warm, dries quickly, and is light weight. The poncho is heavy duty, won’t tear if you lay on it and provides a wind break as well as keeping more heat in.

A sleep system is even better. A sleep system is two sleeping bags and a bivy sack. The sleeping bags fit one inside the other, snapping or zipping together. They, in turn, fit inside the bivy sack. Depending on temperature and weather you use one or all the parts to create a waterproof shelter with liner good from the 80’s down to -30F depending on your clothing (socks and long underwear required for -30F).

Moving out the next step from your sleeping bag and bivy sack and/or sleeping in your car is your first level shelter. This shelter is designed to give you a space in which to work or rest that is protected from rain, wind and sun. A simple tarp can go a long way to accomplishing this.

Setting up a tarp between two trees gives you a classic tent shape. This will shed rain and keep the wind out if you block up the ends. Setting it up as a lean to with the face towards your campfire will give you more heat as the heat reflects back from the tarp.

Also remember to get your body up off the ground, insulated from the ground in some way. The ground is a heat sink that will suck the warmth right out of your body. This is one of the places where a space blanket does a wonderful job.

Going back to the military-issued poncho, it can also be used as a tent shape or lean to shape. Just like the tarp, it can be draped over a frame of natural materials to provide waterproofing. Two (or more) can be snapped together to form a larger enclosure.

From here outward you are building structures to protect you from the elements. This can be as simple as digging a hole/cave into the side of a hill and covering it or as complex as a modern house. Some of the best small scale shelters consist of a hole in the ground (that won’t fill with water when it rains) with a good cover of some sort.

While all of the above shelter devices are about keeping you safe from the elements there is one item that does even more…. Fire.

Being able to create fire from nothing can mean the difference between life and death. In a cold environment the ability to create fire is a must. You generally want to have two or more ways of starting fire. For me, that is fire steel, lighters, matches in waterproof container, string for a fire bow, magnifying lens and maybe one or two I’ve forgotten. These are ALL things that are part of my gear and part of my everyday carry.

Tools for shelter:

• Fire steel
• lighter
• cordage (paracord)
• matches
• tender
• knife
• ax
• saw
• shovel
• level
• Square

Three days without water

Years ago the US Army did a test at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. They had a group of soldiers do the same hike multiple times over the course of a few weeks. The goal was to start with well rested and “combat ready” troops and to see what condition they were in at the end of a 10 mile march.

For the first part of the test they were allowed to drink from their canteens whenever they wanted during the march with the canteens being refilled at breaks. For the second part they were only allowed to drink what they wanted on breaks. For the third part they were made to drink on a schedule forcing more water into them than they really wanted. For the fourth part they were kept on very limited water.

Please excuse this short description but know that the test was done carefully with the men being well treated with plenty of recovery time between tests. Different groups did the tests in different order. The test was scientifically designed and conducted well with the safety and well being of the men in mind at all stages of the experiment.

The findings were very interesting. When they troops drank as they wanted, at the end of the march they needed a few hours of recovery time before they were combat ready. When they were kept from drinking it took a day or so before they were combat ready again. When they were *FORCED* to drink they arrived combat ready and after were able to hike another 10 miles and arrived nearly combat ready.

What this means is that staying hydrated can mean the difference between staying healthy and functional, and full and complete failure.

The literature states that an adult needs one liter of water per day. This can very greatly depending on activity level and environment. The core of this exercise is to point out that to much water is self correcting, to little water is at the best a slow death.

Hydration comes in different parts. The first is having water. The second is having a way to carry water. The third is having the ability to get more water.

For me, the first two parts are handled via US military issue canteens and hydration packs. Some of my hydration packs are military issue and some are not but they all work. I keep my canteen(s) filled but my hydration packs are used all the time so sometimes they are full and sometimes partially empty but I fill them when I take them out.

While having the ability to get more water might seem simple, it often can be questionable. This is because water supplies are often contaminated. Contamination comes in three varieties: Poison, particulates and parasites.

For the most part there is nothing you can do about poisoned water. To remove poisons you need to be able to distill your water or use filters designed to remove the poison. For most filter systems this is done by activated charcoal and is designed to remove limited amounts of poison. A bit of lead or Mercury can be absorbed by the charcoal leading to safer water.

For the purposes of “poison” just think about what has to be done to turn salt water into potable(drinking) water.

Parasites and particles can be removed via appropriate filters. A coffee filter will deal with most particulate matter. A good hiking filter will deal with most if not all parasites.

Parasites can also be killed via a short term poison. A short term poison is something that will kill parasites but after 30 minutes or so it will cause a human no harm. An example of this is chlorine. Water purification tablets work on this principle as well.

Three weeks without food

Food is either what you carry with you or what you can gather, grow or kill. 72 hour ration bars are designed to keep you alive but you might not be happy about it. MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat) are very nice with 1500 calories per meal requiring nothing to be ready to eat and only a little bit of water if you want to heat up your main entrée.

Other types of stored food include “survival buckets” which are designed to feed one person for one month. You can also store dehydrated or freeze dried foods. Canning is another way to store food for the long term. Or you can just go out and buy cans of food and bags of food stuff for storage. Just remember that most foods you buy have a shelf life which has to be taken into account.

Regardless of what you store or carry with you, sooner or later, and likely much sooner than you expect, you will start to run short. In order to supplement or replace your food stuffs you will need to be able to either grow more food, hunt or trap food or fish for it. You’ll need to be able to gather food as well.

If you can’t grow, forage, hunt or fish for your food you will need to be able to trade for your food. If you are planning on taking your food from others please reconsider. First you might be surprised at how strongly a cornered mother fights for her children and secondly there are going to be many more people looking to take than actually preparing. Those that prepare normally prepare in ways other than just storage and food preparation skills.

While you might gag in disgust at the concept of eating bugs today with a full belly, you might very well be turning a handful of creepy crawlies into dinner if you are hungry enough.

One other important thing to remember is that as you get more and more hungry it becomes harder and harder to do work. This means that a 3 mile walk to hunt might be easy and reasonable right now but the amount of energy expended when your belly is pressed against your back bone might be too much. Learn the easy ways to hunt.

Oh, remember all those rules and regulations you learned before you went hunting? They go OUT THE WINDOW when you are starving. The goal is to feed yourself and your family.

Three months without hope

So you’ve made it this far. You’ve fixed the broken body, built shelter, had enough to drink and eat. But now the days march endlessly on with no hope in sight. Every day is like the last except that you know you are going to be more hungry during the winter and more tired in the spring. There is just so much work to be done… Why go on?

Hope is what keeps you going. Hope comes from companionship. It comes from entertainment. It comes from keeping your mind active even as your body groans from over-work. It comes from knowing something better is just around the corner.

Some simple things that help are books for fun. This means more than just how-to and survival books. It means picking your favorite fun read as well. Maybe a couple. It means simple games. A couple of decks of cards and some dice.

Cards

A deck of cards gives you bridge, poker, go fish and a dozen other games. Adding a copy of Hoyle’s will help in making sure the games are fair. Modern card decks are normally plastic coated so a deck will last a long time if you take a little care. And a sealed deck will keep forever.

Some games require tokens. Get out your knife and make some. You can use your saw to cut disks from limbs. While they might not all be exactly the same size you can easily make them similar in size for different denominations. You can draw in the dirt with sticks. Or take the back of a plate and coat it with carbon from a burning candle and write with a sharpened stick.

Dice

A handful of six sided dice will allow you to play still more games. Yatzee is a great game. You don’t need paper and pencils to play. Just a chart in the dirt or on the back of a carbon coated plate.

Craps might not be acceptable but it can be a fun way to pass the time. Consider tokens indicating jobs… teaching math skills to the kids… Draw out a snakes and ladder type game for kids. Make a monopoly style game with your wooden money tokens plus your dice. It is a bit more work but you can recreate many board games if you are willing

Board Games

Everybody should be able to create a checker board. That will double for a chess board. Sitting around carving chess pieces is another form of hope.

Consider a getting a 10 in 1 game set. They often have many games all stored in a smallish space, even if to big for your bag. Take a look at your favorite board games. Take some pictures and print them up. Use your computer to create the board in miniature on the front. Put the rules under the board. On the back list out the cards and such that the game uses.

Take the game “Stratego” as an example: if you were to have the board on the front you could have a list of the different pieces on the back. Add a simple description or pattern on how to make the pieces from wood tokens and you are a long way to having a board game.

Books

Having a large number of books is likely to make life much more pleasant in the long run. Everybody is going to have some how-to books, everything from cookbooks to beginning carpentry.

Besides having text books you are also going to want to feed the spirit. Don’t forget your copy of your Bible and/or other religious texts.

Finally don’t forget some fun books. You can’t really go wrong with Robert A. Heinlein, of course.

Okay, so Chris has made some changes to the blog, and I’m not sure I know what I’m doing. I hope this goes out without any issues, in any case.

There’s a lot of people right now who are complaining about rising costs. Now, some of those complaints do have a basis in reality. Right now, the cost of beef is up. Gas is still almost $4 a gallon near me, and probably a lot higher everywhere else in the country. Taxes are insane. Prices are still up from the previous administration, and while they are coming down, they’re doing so very slowly. So yes, there are some things to whine about.

But here’s the thing… Complaining about it really doesn’t get you anywhere.

I’ve taken on a few challenges in the past few weeks, stuff like how to cook within a budget and what can you make with only what you have on hand (ie no store trips). I always “win” these, partly because I already cook within a budget, partly because I spent a number of years being truly poor (not unhoused, but damn close), and partly because I cook with real food and very little in the way of convenience stuff. Also, I stock up on food when it’s cheap.

When I mention that it’s important to buy and preserve foods when they’re least expensive (for instance, freezing or canning tomatoes now, while they’re pennies to the bushel, instead of dollars per tomato later in the winter), I’m told that people just don’t have time for that. Which confuses me, because when I was working full time, caring for my family full time, volunteering a few hours a week with MS patients near end of life, and running a small religious group as well, I still managed to make food for my family. And it had to be “real” food because DoorDash hadn’t been invented yet, and most of the convenience foods hadn’t hit the market at that time. Real food was what we got. I couldn’t afford convenience foods, what little there was. “Convenience” food meant I got canned or frozen instead of fresh.

“But Ally, you don’t UNDERSTAND. It’s HARD. We can’t afford-”

I don’t really care, honey. I really don’t. Right now, I have a very pleasant budget. I just got back from dropping $300 on a big shop, because we decided to have beef this week (woo! big treat for us) AND salmon (not as bad as beef, but still pricey at $9/lb). We got a lot of staples we were down on, including beans and rice and canned tomatoes and such. I made a trip to a local “bump and dent” store on Thursday, where I got bags of legumes for a buck, cans of stuff for a quarter, and some fun dessert type things for $1.80 a can. That was a fun trip. Today’s grocery trip was nice, too. I came home with a lot of fresh veg (onions, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.), some canned goods, some fresh meat (flank steak), and some canned meat (generic spam).

We have some really nice meals this week. I’m doing a “harvest bowl” which is basically chicken cooked with honey and cider, steamed butternut squash, cold arugula and other veg, served over hot rice. Very easy to leave out things people can’t have (me with the havarti cheese that’s supposed to go in it), or add in extra things to make it fit our diet better. We’re having flank steak with potatoes and mushrooms. We’ll have tacos one night, because it’s Tuesday (is there a better reason?). Good stuff, healthy, quick.

I’ve been putting up videos about easy and quick meals. I make them “the long way” myself, because I can, but I talk about how my made-from-scratch bone broth can be subbed out for a tetrapack or can of broth (or even ramen packet broth, I’ve done that plenty of times). I go over how to do it completely from scratch, and then I talk about quick substitutions so you can enjoy it in a half hour. I made chicken and dumpling soup for one. Last night it was ham and potato casserole with fried zucchini on the side. Easy peasy stuff. Mostly using leftovers. Less than $5 for each meal, and that’s enough food to feed 5 to 8 people (4 to 5 if you’re fat and like food, like we do).

What today’s young folks can’t afford, is to sit on their laurels and whine. What they need to do is learn to pinch pennies, make freezer scraping soup, and make do. Weren’t they just whinging on about “reduce, reuse, recycle” a few short years ago? This is the ultimate version of that game. I win.

I accept no cop-outs (well, not quite true… there have been a couple of folks who’ve been whining on social media, got schooled, and then turned themselves around and learned…. they get a pass, because they actually tried fixing it, so not really a cop-out). This is real life, and if you want to survive it (not win at it, mind… just survive it) then you need to listen up and learn.

If you are poor, you need:

• to know how to cook at least basics
• to know how to count calories, so you know if you and your family are getting enough of them
• a working knowledge of how the stove works, as well as the oven
• to be truly organized, because if not, you will sink

These are not options. Just as folks living through the depression had no choice about their lives, kids today (and adults) have to deal with the life they’ve got. You are living Here And Now, and therefore, you have to know enough to make it through the day. Yes, that means you have to go shopping. Yes, that means you have to plan meals. Yes, that means you have to know how to cook beans from dry, because $0.50/lb for beans is less than $1.50 for a can (and it takes 8 cans to make up that one bag, btw).

I can sometimes sympathize with people struggling, especially when I can see they ARE doing all the right things. Those ones get help from me/us. We often put our money where our mouth is. Our door is always open to friends and family, even those distant, and there’s always food here. It might be plain and cheap (or it might not), but it’ll be filling and nutritious, and that’s what counts. No one goes hungry at my house unless they actively made the choice to do so.

So no, I don’t accept someone is poor when they have an iPhone in one hand, Starbucks in the other, and a nice new car. We drive an old truck and an old Jeep. We rarely go out to eat, and we never waste calories or dollars on “coffee desserts.” We do have nice phones, but that’s a choice we’ve made because we can. I had the Nokia “never destroyed” version for a long time, as my first cell phone, because we could afford it and it did the job. Now, I have a nice Android, but it is my office and replaces a lot of computer stuff. I made the choice. Oh, and MY phone? My “nice” Android? It was the free one when one of the kids got their own nice phone. Heh…

Sure, you can complain about how the world is today. But do so with purpose. If veg is too expensive to buy, grow it. Don’t know how? Ask; I’ll teach you for free, and you can do it in a pail or a pot if need be. If you can’t afford 2 cars, figure out a way to do with one (we did, and we survived). If you can’t afford things, save up… even if it takes a long time.

And if you can’t afford basics (food, shelter, transportation, communication), then do NOT be out there buying crap that eats up your funds. No Starbucks. No convenience food. No booze or pot. No tattoos. No new clothes that aren’t absolutely necessary (sometimes work clothes are required, and that’s obviously a necessity). No hair coloring (unless you do it at home). All these things come AFTER basics. If you can’t afford to eat, you simply cannot do those other things. And yes, it sucks. I know; it was my life for many years. But that’s just What You Do.

You don’t have to like it. You do have to do it. And you know what else? I don’t have to listen to you bitch about it.

I’m not going to eulogize Ms. Parton. She was amazing, and if you think differently, well… you’re wrong. So I bring to you, Dolly’s first performance of Coat of Many Colors, from Jan. 13, 1970:

I’ve been a Dolly fan for years, and more than her music, I have loved her attitude. She understood how to give someone a hand up rather than a handout. And that’s what I remember her for. Rest easy on your bed of comfortable cotton, Ms. Parton. We miss you already.

This summer has been a ridiculously busy one, and real life kind of slapped us all in the face. Between car issues, truck issues, injuries, illnesses… we just haven’t been on here. And that needs to change. I’m going to be making a huge effort, though please excuse any hiccups between now and the end of September.

I’m going to throw some quick stuff together and hopefully I’ll manage to get my writing back in gear.

To give you a quick rundown of my summer, I spent early summer dealing with some minor but negative health things, and then went right into New Hampshire Renaissance Faire. I want to say, that was the most difficult and yet most satisfying year ever. We managed to raise over $147,000 for the NH Food Bank and over $97,000 for Rockford NH Meals on Wheels. All that by doing a fair that everyone loves anyhow. 🙂 It’s my most important charity event of the year, and I give it everything I’ve got.

Because I gave it everything, I then missed a couple of events I’d intended on attending. I was just … spent. But I did 9 library gigs this spring and summer, I believe, and that was a real record for me. I love doing 18th century library gigs, but wow, that was a lot. I moved from those into Maine Ren, which was a full 3 weekends this year. You might not think that sounds like much, but it’s four days (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon) of hard labor for each weekend of fair. I managed to do something to my foot and ankle, so I missed yet another event after that one, so that I could take care of myself.

From there, I moved into Fort events, which are a little easier for me. I’ve made the sad but necessary decision to step away from my French F&I group, the Pequawket Alliance. I just don’t have enough time to do stuff with them. I’ll still see everyone when they come to the Fort, though, so it’s not an entire goodbye. Still, it was sad.

And then I missed the event I love doing every year, Hillsboro History Alive, because the truck’s alternator died. I was packed and ready to go, and then we fizzled. So I spent last weekend at home, sleeping and reading. I’m ashamed by just how much I needed that.

I have a handful more events this year. New library gigs may arrive, and I also have Auburn Duck Race Day (Sat. Sept. 12, 10am to 3pm, Auburn Village on Hooksett Rd, Auburn NH), the Timeline event at the Fort (Sept 26/27), Mayflower Market Days (Oct 17/18, in Plympton, MA), and the Hammond Castle Ren Faire days (Nov 7/8).

With more time on my hands, I’m sitting down to get caught up on my writing, which was sadly neglected since May. I’m working apace on my latest vampire novel, with a hope of getting it out for the xmas rush. That would be nice. 🙂

I’ll leave you with a little bit of the Working Man’s Blues:

This post is from a FB group called Collective Evolution. I’m sharing it here because it says a LOT.

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I ran across this one in a queue of music that Google/YouTube curated for me. I must say, I have become a big fan of Inappropriate Jazz, which is advertised as “edgy angry woman singing.” I admit, I would not want to listen to the entire album in one sitting, but dispersed throughout my day, it’s a fucking pleasure. Heh…

So many people have told me what a lady should and shouldn’t do, over the years. I got tired of it, stopped listening entirely, and simply focused on being the best PERSON I could be. It wasn’t until my early 40s that the idea of being a lady came up again. I’m still not sold on it, but there are moments when I dress “as a lady” and behave myself with a modicum of politeness because it’s appropriate to the time. I suppose in those moments, I could be called a lady.

In any case, this song makes me smile.

Sometimes you think you know a musical artist, and then they throw you a curve ball. Alice Cooper was like that. He started out wanting to be the “worst band ever” and became popular. Then they did the 70s thing and went mainstream (that’s where this song comes in). And then shock rock became a thing, and he found his complete groove. I hope you enjoy. This is one of my favorite Cooper songs, and it never got air play because it’s not “scary” Coop stuff.

There are moments I like being a lady. There are times I actually settle into a comfortable grandma moment. But let’s be honest, now… I’m not that way by nature. This song sings to my soul. 🙂

I’ve seen this one go around lately, and it has that lovely “feel good” vibe. We need all these touchy feely things, and the future will be just fine.

The problem, of course, is that a colony on mars will help us with drinkable water. Servers orbiting the planet helps us figure out climate issues (because, while I may not see the widespread planet-killing eco disaster the Left claims, we do have things we do poorly, and being able to monitor the planet better would do good things). There’s a non-zero chance that AI might solve our pollinator problem.

I have found that there is a certain part of the Left that seems to believe that if we all just lived on tofu and kale chips, and only drank recycled pee, walked to work, and everyone had a garden, things would immediately reverse and the world would be rosy, and everyone would get along. Cue singing Kumbaya. Oh, I forgot not showering. I’m not sure where that comes in, but they never seem to shower. Ugh.

Now, I have no issue with tofu and kale chips. I rather like both, quite honestly, but I want them when *I* want them, not because nothing else is allowed. I’d rather avoid recycled pee if I can, unless I manage to get shipped off to Mars, in which case bring it on! We almost had most people working from home, and while I am dead set that it should be voluntary and not required (as it was with covid), it did solve a lot of problems. Six weeks into our lovely lock downs, all the smog was gone, plants and bees and gardens and animals were all doing much better. Sort of put shut to the idea that it would take decades if not centuries to repair “all the damage we’ve done.” I do think most people should have a garden, even if all they do is grow some peas or a tomato plant, because it’s good for the soul and it reminds us where food comes from. I think too many people forget that.

The thing is, we can responsibly use modern tools like AI and satellites for many things. I use AI all the time for research, where it cuts down on my “random searching on the interwebz” time. Yes, I verify everything I’m told, because AI is not infallible because WE are not infallible, and it learns from us. But it’s still useful. It takes research from “days or weeks” to “hours or days,” which is huge for me. I use it for organization. I love satellite images, because I can see all sorts of things. I can watch recreations of historical battles done by AI using extant information over real modern maps. It’s amazing. I’m sure people thought gas and electric stoves were the end of the world, at one point. I know that many people fought against the removal of candles and the addition of gas lighting. It’s always hard to accept change when it comes.

But here’s the thing I see… Building a colony on Mars? That means we’ll have terraforming going on, which is absolutely applicable to our own planet. If you can turn Mars red soil into something we can grow in, then we can apply that to the Sahara Desert. If we can explore (in a few decades) the methane oceans of Titan, then maybe we can also create safe ways to navigate the depths of our own oceans. And so on. Progress allows us to learn new things about our own world, even as we explore others.

Then, of course, there’s the idea that was often touted by Heinlein. When humans find a new frontier, they go for it. They go for broke. They do crazy, insane things to go exploring. And there is a certain percentage of our population that are simply wired that way, and no amount of “reprogramming” is going to change them. They SHOULD be encouraged to challenge the new frontiers. The other side of that is that those who leave Earth to go elsewhere will toughen the breed. Those left behind will not advance as quickly as the ones who go out and explore. He believed that those who never face the raw, unforgiving nature of a space frontier are far more likely to embrace socialism, authoritarianism, and conformist rules. (LA Public Library)

The end of the meme says, “That’s the only future I’m interested in.” That seems to be exactly what Heinlein feared, doesn’t it? Because the future I’m interested in includes infinite possibilities. There’s room for those who want to be home bodies, and those who want to explore. For the gardeners and the hunters. For the thinkers and the doers. The burger flippers and the rocket scientists. We need them all, and more. I want to know what’s in the deepest parts of our oceans, and I want to know what’s on that watery planet at the very edge of our telescopic vision. I want to meet aliens, and I want to be at peace with folks at home.

I want all the futures. I’m interested in every single one of them. From AI to pollinators to satellites. All. No boundaries. 🙂

Talking about taxing the rich made me think about Leftist math, which made me think of New Math and the troubles I had learning it. So this is for all of us who struggled with New Math. 😉