Preparedness

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and be unprepared ." ~~ Whitney Young

During the weeks leading up to Y2K (or simply the year 2000, as we know now), there was a frenzy of preparedness amongst people who were fearing the worst. People were scared that banks would no longer be able to function, that gasoline pumps would fail and supermarkets would not able to scan items for check out. There were those who were certain the change of century numbers would bring Armageddon. There were others who felt it would be a mere blip on the radar. We watched on as people boarded up their homes, had months of food stockpiled in basements and extra fuel sources on hand. And yet, as the flip of the numbers brought few complications, the experience did teach us about considering preparedness. While the year 2000 did not bring the catastrophic collapse of society, it did usher in a time of major upheavals in other ways. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and other disasters around the world. The question is: are we prepared for any eventuality?


This dilemma reminds me of my 12th grade Physics final presentation. My partner and I had chosen to do the topic of tides and tidal forces. We researched in the library at our prep school, and we had written, what we thought, was a well developed, inclusive and interesting speech. Our teacher, a thoughtful and entertaining Australian man, listened politely throughout our presentation. At the very end, he asked me, "But, Ellen, what exactly *causes* tides?". I was stumped. All of my witty remarks, all of my anecdotal quotations and all of my historical references were moot. I had no idea. My preparation was completely useless. I did not know the most basic answer to the most basic question of my project. I had the opportunity to succeed and I blew it because of my lack of thorough preparation.


Still, the question remains as to whether or not we can be fully prepared for any circumstance that comes our way. I believe that we can be so utterly focused on one area of preparation for one possibility so that we may become blindsided by yet another, just as I was in my Physics project. We may find ourselves with our vision skewed about what our goals truly need to be, where we need to focus our attention and how we work to ready ourselves for the 'coming storm'. And yet, metaphorically speaking, when a storm arrives in the form of a blizzard, rather than a tsunami, we realize that our sandbags, to hold back the rising river,will be powerless against the feet of snow falling from the sky. St. John of the Cross wrote, "I am not made or unmade by my circumstances, but by my reactions to them." In my very humble opinion, our greatest gift, and our greatest weapon, in battling the unknown forces we will encounter, is the preparedness of flexibility. So often, we construct plans that we believe are foolproof. When those fail, we are lost. If we find ourselves, then, grooming, developing and fortifying our creative, lateral thinking problem solving skills, we will be better able to adapt to changing challenges.


Does this mean we should cease all sense of organization? Of course not. We have every day obligations that require our attention and commitment. We need to pay our bills, maintain our homes and plan for the future, as best as we can. We should try to anticipate our upcoming needs and attempt to meet them. But, when life doesn't proceed as we expected, we must learn to develop the ability to modify, to adapt and to acclimate. When we are able to find that balance between anticipation and adaptability, we will find a greater sense of harmony.