Zombie food

I am trying to stay informed but not be overwhelmed. To acknowledge the chaos but not succumb to it. To bear witness to the devastation but not let it depress me. And let me tell you, it is hard fucking work. Who knew it would take a global upheaval for me to finally start practicing mindfulness?

In no way am I saying I have figured out how to survive this current onslaught of simultaneous fear-mongering yet terror-inducing headlines. I’m pretty sure that I read something somewhere about how our brains have not yet evolved to handle this level of information processing. Seriously though, when I was a child we got our news from the newspaper, the local morning or evening broadcast, and the national evening news. PERIOD.

It's hard not to wonder what the tipping point will be. There has to be one, right? Will it happen domestically or internationally first? There is just so much pain and fear, and entirely too many prideful men that believe they know best. The tinder is ready.

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a confession. It is entirely possible you will think we are cuckoo for coco puffs, and I’m ok with that… I think. So, Miguel and I aren’t exactly doomsday preppers, but we’re making a few preparations – let’s call ourselves preparers.

We don’t have a bunker, (thought I might have asked Miguel about the possibility of building one) and we’re not storing bags of grain and rice. But we do have a couple shelves in our basement where we keep bottles of water, canned goods and peanut butter.

Miguel has always insisted on having emergency food storage and I used to tease him about his “zombie apocalypse food”. But last week soup was on sale and I picked up a couple extra cans to add to the shelve. And you know what? I slept a little better that night.

So, a couple things, I am fully aware that we are fortunate enough that we are not living hand to mouth and have the ability to buy extra food. Also, perhaps putting on the internet that we have a small amount of non-perishable food is not the greatest idea should there actually be a run on our food supply.

I guess my point is that these are not normal times and cognitive overload is a real thing. Have there always been major conflicts and tragedies throughout human history, of course. Have we ever been aware of all of them happening, all over the world, every time we pick up our phones? No.

If you feel compelled to begin compiling your own dry food storage, you will certainly not find judgement here. Or maybe you are compulsively watching murder documentaries or have taken up reading smutty books. Whatever you need to do to help you get some sleep at night, I fully support. Also, I would like to petition bringing back the word smutty – it is fun to say and a highly underrated adjective.

I jest, but this shit is getting real and as the saying goes if I didn’t laugh, I would probably cry. To that end, I would love to hear from all of you about what you are doing to help ease some of your anxiety. Maybe I’ll steal a few tips. I mean, if the government comes for our anti-depressants, we’re going to need all the help we can get. 

<sigh>

Photo ID: Kelly wearing a light pink beanie and sweater smiling and resting over six cans of soup.