I'd like to think that like Katniss Everdeen of Hunger Games my 7th grade daughter would hunt for her own food and fight like a tribal warrior for her survival. We even bought the kids real bow and arrows for Christmas one year to try and prepare them for survival mode if the need ever occurred. Deep down though, I know that my big ideas of preparation and survival don't amount to much in the scheme of things. We're talking bio warfare/ zombies, changing polar zones with wintery conditions that compare to the Ice Age, or holes in the Ozone layer that are depleting our oxygen levels, nuclear war, even drought and famine, or worse yet (the plague). Any of these things could spell doom for humanity as we know it, but would it end everything and would those that live have been the strong or would they be the chosen few? I often wonder what my kids would do without the "instant life": instant internet, instant conversation, instant food, instant energy. These are no longer conveniences, but rather a normal way of life. I think of Avatar and the Indians and how without those who had the knowledge of the land and how to live off of it without them and that knowledge one would be in the darkest of situations.
These are the rational fears in the back of my mind. That I can't protect them no matter how much I would like to. But, I choose above all to have hope. I will buy them bows and arrows, ground them from technology on occasion to give them a taste of life without it, keep them in sports so that they will stay fast and flexible, feed them so that they will stay healthy and strong, and provide them shelter. Above all I will show them love, because no matter this life, the post apocalyptic life, or in the afterlife love is something they can hold onto. Love will give them hope. Love will help them to find their faith. It's okay that with everyday we step out into a scary world of the unknowns, because with faith we will land together onto something more.
