So I guess we should begin talking about stockpiling and how it’s different than hording. Those who have collecting skills or miserly qualities should easily move well with this skill provided they have a prepared heart. As God’s Word states, only those who are righteous, industrious and good stewards will end well: Proverbs 10:3, 11:1, 11:24-26.

1. Proverbs 10:3 – The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish.
   We need to hold ourselves to high integrity and standards in the beginning of these dark times. Be honest and truthful with our words and actions, courageous and dogmatic about what’s right, loyal and faithful to God at all costs.
   There’s nothing righteous in being angry, inconsiderate, jealous or rude. Righteousness starts by being ready to admit we’re wrong, and by acknowledging natural laws that govern us as being universal with accountability.
2. Proverbs 11:1 – Dishonest scales are an abomination of the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.
   I.E. Don’t clock in time you didn’t work. Don’t say you did something if you didn’t. If the United States economy collapses and bartering becomes a popular way of life, remember that God’s law states that any cheater pays back seven fold what he stole.
3. Proverbs 11:24-26 – There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself. The people will curse him who withholds grain, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.
   Any man who doesn’t provide for his family’s needs first is a twisted dung heap. After providing for your family, see how you can further sustain your need and others with what you have remaining. Although God blesses those who bless the poor, we need to be industrious in how we help others. Remember the parable of the maids with the oil lamps in Matthew 25:1-13. Although the parable is intended to demonstrate our spiritual preparedness for the tribulation (perhaps even acceptance of the rapture itself) it holds wisdom for other aspects in life. In short, it’s the boyscout motto: be prepared.

What should we stockpile? Nonperishable Consumables. These are items that last long on the shelf that everyone uses: Daily necessities such as toilet paper, shaving cream, razors, toothpaste; Cans or packages of food with more than two or three years of shelf-life such as beans, peanut butter and ramen noodles; Extra batteries; Bottled water and water purifiers; “sinful” pleasures such as cigarettes, wine, bottles of rum.

You might not have interests in these items, but others will in a couple of years.

Today I have to admit that many of my blog posts aren’t useful. Instead of providing information to help others deal with serious, personal issues … and rather than giving some level of relief or insight, I’ve bantered about notions and ideas that don’t encourage or support people in these difficult times.

The Paurian Cafe started out as a sounding board, but as time passes, and as I supposedly mature, it becomes more apparent that personal sounding boards and web journals generally don’t help the public who have an actual and realized need.

What do people need? What do they want? Where are we heading from this point?

Irresponsible people in government have an idealistically optimist outlook. They have for years. A politically influential man told me in June 2008 that we had eight more years before our nation would collapse. That in eight years, we would no longer be “America”. He didn’t say we wouldn’t be “America as we know it,” but that we would no longer be American soil. I wish I had started investing in gold then. I thought of doing it last spring, but decided to put that money towards refinancing our house to lower the monthly payments. We’re living in times where every decision we make is invariably a bad one depending on who you listen to.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. – Thomas Jefferson

Lately my life has been an emotional roller coaster. Is this what people refer to as mid life crisis? Maybe I’m just finally getting back in touch with my feelings. I could get seriously mature at this point and talk about politics and religion because that’s what adults are supposed to do… but I’m going to take a chance and run with my emotions here for a moment.

I’d have to thank my wife for helping me along that road. Sixteen years ago we met over a poetry group that I founded and moderated at the U. Emotions were fierce and wonderfully inescapable.

These emotions are what drove my creativity … I think by the time we’re adults we’ve learned to suppress our emotions so much that we forget we have them … the life that used to be so brilliant and colorful when we were kids has become a sea of lackluster and that dreary adultness points a finger at “responsibility” when being more responsible has nothing to do with losing that edge.

It was that emotion that drove the creativity into writing music, poetry, art and photography. A good friend of mine, Jorge, who had more creative genius in his left foot than I had in both my hands found a girlfriend and was spending most of his time with her. That left me with only geeky buddies to hang out with and visit. Then I found a girlfriend and she was the hottest girl in the CS lab to be sure! Now she’s the hottest girl in my house!

So when it comes to emotions, adults are conditioned to forget about them, and that’s easy to do with television and computer games. Since I’ve cut those out I started to see life normal again.

Last night I read a book to my son. It has a picture of a playground and a boy at the top of the slide, looking out. I remember that moment – the first big slide I climbed. I was so high! It was amazing. Then I thought to myself … all those moments in life that followed where I got used to being taller off the ground made being as high as that slide not so exciting anymore: The first tall tower, the first flight, the first time falling in love… but each of those highs were different. They had different mindsets and observations. And each one is so wonderful they shouldn’t be forgotten or compared with the rest.

So why did I suppress my creativity? I was trained into it for one thing. It’s the politics, the corporate, the expectation to be proper and civilized. Go ask James Thurber about being civilized! … but more than that it’s childhood fears in an adult form that I haven’t faced and shook off.

I can’t run away from who God made me, but I’m so paranoid! I’m afraid of people watching me and calling me a failure face just like they did for years in school! Ugh! It still feels like they’re watching me and waiting for that chance to laugh at me all over again.

Like the daft Captain Hook – always looking for a chance to choke the life out of Peter Pan just to sneer at Pan’s failure. The adult psyche is always trying to kill the child psyche. In more modern terms, it’s like the dreaded Count Olaf – always watching … always near and just waiting to snatch up the little orphans’ souls (after all, that’s the most enormous fortune anyone’s got).