Relationships, Enchantment

How to Survive the End of the World

This blog post title “How to Survive the End of the World” is probably the most click-bait blog post title I have ever written.

(You can see this blog post for the one with the least click-bait title: Hegel was Right. We Need the Dialectic.)

But I have specifically chosen this title because most of us, at one point or another, feel like the world is coming to an end, metaphorically or literally.

Given some of the turmoil going on currently, you may feel like the end of the world is about to happen now.

Or you may have felt like the end of the world was upon us four years ago.

Perhaps you felt this way during the pandemic.

You get my point.

To be honest, I’ve had the feeling recently (for a variety of reasons) that the sky is falling.

And I’ve had to peace out, center down, and try to collect my frazzled wits.

In the midst of my frazzled condition, I happened to find this book at a thrift store.

Picture, courtesy of Me. You can find Aurora at your local library or bookseller. Or you can find it on Amazon here.

It was a life saver. And it relates to this post, so let me tell you about it.

At the beginning of this book (and this post has a ton of spoilers), we find out that the planet earth is about to experience a massive solar flare.

It will knock out the planet’s entire electrical grid for the foreseeable future (perhaps months, perhaps years).

Picture, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

And as you can imagine, such an event is going to plunge the world into chaos.

It certainly means people can’t use their cell phone and watch TV (quelle horreur!).

But, more importantly, it will severely disrupt people’s access to food, water, heat, and other basic amenities.

In the book, as scientists become aware of what is about to happen with the solar flare, they predict societal disruption will be cataclysmic.

And you can probably imagine, people react to this impending disaster in a variety of  ways. Some people warn various government authorities.

Other people resign themselves to fatalistic despair.

One of the main characters. Thom, a tech billionaire, goes the full-on prepper route.

He builds a silo in the desert and also stockpiles food, cash, and luxuries there in anticipation of the event.

Picture, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Given his vast resources, he is able to hire (and hold on retainer) professional security personnel, a chef, a yoga and spiritual consultant, a doctor and dentist, and various other professionals.

They are ready, at a moment’s notice, to retreat with him and his family to his super-secret, super-stocked, luxury silo in the desert.

There is just one problem. Thom can’t get along with anyone.

He and his wife (whom he brought with him to the silo, of course) are on the rocks, and Thom consistently alienates everyone in his artificial community.

In fact, one by one, they start to leave.

It appears his community members prefer life in the uncertain, chaotic world to the strained and hostile silo community he creates, despite its luxury.

Now, as you can also imagine, when the solar flare occurs and the electricity goes out, there is a lot of panic in the normal world outside life in the silo.

Not surprisingly, there is looting. And there are a lot of people deeply frightened about how they are going to survive.

Many act unwisely.

Thom has a sister, Aubrey, whom he tries to convince to come to his silo with him.

Interestingly, she refuses and stays in her community, caring for her moody stepson whose father had deserted him.

To be clear, the societal disruption is extremely difficult for her and her already strained relationship with her stepson.

But Aubrey focuses on caring for him, caring for herself, and taking care of her neighbors.

She and her neighbors develop a plan for sharing food they already had, as well as turning their front and back yards into gardens.

Picture, courtesy of Me. This is our backyard garden! We get to share our produce with friends and neighbors, which is really fun.

They end up cultivating a community of people who share resources,  grow food together, look out for each other, and protect one another.

And of course things are still hard, but they survive the disaster and even thrive, despite not having Thom’s resources and luxuries.

In fact, the one time Aubrey and her community face serious threat is when Thom tries, against Aubrey’s will, to send her a bunch of money.

Some hooligans try to steal it from her, and of course violence ensues.

Luckily, Aubrey and her community are able to defend themselves against this danger.

At the end of the book, Thom visits Aubrey’s neighborhood, which is a thriving community, surrounded by abundant gardens, filled with food.

In a moment of irony he says, “I thought the way to survive was to build a silo in a desert.”

Indeed. I think a lot of people mistakenly believe that is the way to survive.

Now here’s my point.

Certainly this book is fictional. However, the key plot points track with real life.

Of course, money and power can be helpful, even extremely helpful.

And, of course, natural and human disasters are real and harmful, and we need to take them seriously.

Nevertheless, it is also true that our greatest wealth lies in the authentic relationships and social capital we build with people in our community.

That’s because when the world is coming to an end, metaphorically or literally, those communities save us.

They provide us with care, communal wisdom, communal resources, communal manpower.

These are the goods that help us survive both natural and human-made disasters.

And this suggests an important thing about how we approach those end-of-the-world feelings.

I don’t know about you, but when it feels like the end of the world is upon us, I often mistakenly feel like it is my responsibility to save the whole world.

That is, I mistakenly start by thinking globally.

And not surprisingly, since there is no way I can save the world by myself, I end up in despair and exhaustion.

Books like Aurora remind me of the adage “Think locally.”

This a wise saying.

When we think locally, we focus on building community, becoming aware of resources, and understanding how we can develop a network of caring and sharing.

Picture by Tim Mossholder, courtesy of Unsplash.

And, in fact, the stronger we are locally, the more we can think  and act globally and do it effectively.

So, Friend, if you feel like the end of the world is here, and you don’t know how to survive, please think locally.

Cultivate your community.

You have resources to share with others. They have resources to share with you.

Care for your community locally.

And then you can focus on your community globally.

We will make it together.

Update: You Guys: Today my husband came home with a bag of canned goods we were gifted. It was a beautiful example of community generosity.

By the way, I recently read this related article, which I love: “Meet the Woman Who Lives Without Money: ‘I Feel More Secure Than When I was Earning.’

Also, I have recorded a brief course titled, “The Four Basic Truths: We are Worthy, Capable, Connected, and Called to Adventure.” It’s free, and you might find it helpful to listen to when you struggle with those end-of-the-world feelings. You can find it here.

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2 thoughts on “How to Survive the End of the World”

  1. Thank you for this blog. I appreciate your insight and support during this difficult time. I have always been in community with likeminded people. It’s a way of life that has made a difference in many significant ways, like better physical and emotional health.

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