(Originally posted August, 2002)
Ever happened to you - getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and trying to get back? It happened to me just last week when my Saturn's rear tire decided to blow out from heat and age near the little town of Firebaugh, California. (Don't worry, I didn't know where that was, either!)
Sure, I changed the tire along the edge of Interstate 5, getting whooshed by passing cars and thrummed by passing trucks. I had one of those mini spares, of course, which meant that I had to choose between a daredevil trip over the remaining 150 miles to the Bay Area, or a prudent 2-mile trip back to the previous off-ramp with roadside services. I chose to be prudent. Of course, prudence has its price, too - in this case, it was just over $190.
The point of this is that proper preparation is always a good thing. My car had the necessary tools and I had the necessary know-how (and money). Life threw a momentary obstacle in front of me, but I was able to negotiate it.
But Life isn't always so easy, is it?
What happens when we don't have the preparation, the know-how, or the money? In the case of the tire incident, I'd probably still be stuck there without tools, skills, or money waiting for someone to come along and help me. Of those three, I would hazard a guess that I could've probably figured something out to make up for lack of know-how, but overcoming the lack of tools or money, in this case, would have been much harder.
In terms of education, are we still concerned with preparation of our children for meeting the future? I wonder sometimes. I just finished reading Pat Frank's classic 1959 novel, Alas, Babylon, in which citizens of a small Florida town experience the aftermath of a major nuclear attack and counterattack. They are cut off from the rest of the world, especially once gasoline, electricity and batteries are gone. The phones fail and telegraph lines have limited range. Sewer systems fail, and dysentery, cholera, and even typhoid start to threaten everyone, especially when the medical supplies are ravaged by drug addicts and highwaymen. Paper money becomes worthless. Coffee becomes scarce, and liquor is even more desirable than usual as disinfectant as well as tranquilizer. What are often taken for granted in a flourishing society become the most valuable things of all in a primitive one: books containing know-how and non-electric entertainment, music to stir the soul, friends and family to help each other through the hard times with work, trust, comfort.
The ones who succeed are those who have learned beyond the superficial world they once inhabited. The banker fails to see what a non-cash-based economy will require. The indolent fail to see how they can help themselves by helping others. The traders and doctors and mechanics, however, set to work immediately doing what they've always learned to do: solve problems, minimize future problems, optimize resources. And the story succinctly points out most of all that there's always a need for leaders, especially in times of crisis.
