Skip to main contentA Different Kind of Preparedness
It's true. The earth could shake and my home comes tumbling down. The markets could crash and my savings turn to dust. The beautiful mountains around us will certainly erupt again. Our food, air and water are increasingly filled with human-dumped toxic waste. The list goes on and on.
I like to be prepared, and I am…to a degree. Diversified investments, stored water and food, for instance. However, "Quake-up Call" (WW, Jan. 27, 2010) sounded an alarm to prepare at a level that is, for me at least, unthinkable. If I were to heed that call, I would collapse in fear at the enormity of potential worst-case disaster scenarios.
I refuse to live that way. Instead, I build community with my neighbors next door and far away. I work my spiritual muscles to tolerate chaos and fear. I remember the long-term picture, and honor the power of the Earth under my feet. I face the inevitability of death as a natural part of life. This is the type of preparedness that I wholeheartedly undertake.
Life is dangerous. Always has been, always will be. Facing that, and spending a reasonable amount of time and energy getting prepared, again and again I return to the only moment of life that I have—the present moment.
Nancy Thurston
Northeast Halsey Street
CORRECTION: WW incorrectly reported on Jan. 13 ("Public Options" ) that Commissioner Amanda Fritz was the first and only city commissioner to win office in Portland with public funding. Her victory in 2008 made her the first and only non-incumbent to win with public financing. But former Commissioner Erik Sten used public financing when he won re-election in 2006. WW regrets the error.
WWeek 2015