Real People, Real Preparation, Part One

By Carolyn Baker of Speaking Truth to Power

Some people choose to relocate, others remain in place. Some are no longer working in traditional jobs; others are. Truth to Power subscriber, Susan Bedwell, who happens to work outside her home, graciously shares her transition story in this exclusive interview.

CB: Tell us a little about your background, where you grew up, your family, and the work you've been doing in recent years. I know that question is really a three-part question, so take plenty of time to answer those parts.

SB: My name is Susan and I am a feminist, mother, educator and soul-mate and wife to a wonderful man, Jerry! I was brought up with Midwestern values in a hard working and caring family. I would term our economic status as lower middle class with a lovely grandmother who took care of our family when needed. "When needed" is defined as when my dad was either laid off from the water heater factory or there was a monumental factory strike.

Childhood was extremely pleasant! I learned to garden, sew, make bread and can from my wonderful Grandma! I spent much beloved time with my Grandma through my early adolescence. These times with my Grandma were carefree and always great fun.

I became a first generational college graduate due to the fact my Uncle George was a member of the La Porte, Indiana School Board and preached the value of education. It was tough for my family to send me to Purdue University, but with college loans and a mother who worked a menial job for eight years to get both myself and my brother through college, I graduated.

In college, I was a full-fledged hippie and have to this day believed in non-violence and the integrity and value of the human spirit. Another belief is that smaller is almost always better. We believe it is better to have people collectively work together instead of someone dictating what one should believe and should buy and should think. I can honestly say that I live my life with Jerry just that way!

Belief that we, as humans, are lifelong learners, created the motivation to earn a Master's degree and a Doctorate. Today, I feel very differently about earning degrees because the value of mastering skill sets like water harvesting, gardening, canning, off-the-grid building construction, candle-making, soap-making seem like far greater accomplishments than a higher education diploma or two. These skill sets have fallen away in our current society. I believe the value of these skills and abilities will be exceptionally sought after as we experience the end of civilization as we know it today.

The professional work I have been doing has involved the areas of education, program development, advocacy, leadership and fundraising. Jerry and I have worked extensively in the non-profit sector with a mission-based focus of serving people with disabilities. Most recently, I have managed a college teacher certification program. Currently, I manage a program funded through the US Department of Education called Educational Opportunities Center. The intent of the program is to assist persons in completing their GED, or enroll in a trade and technical school or assist people in entering higher education. Many of the environments we serve include prisons, drug courts, workforce centers, foster care, trade and technical centers, homeless youth shelters, and community probation.

CB: When was the very first incident or event or experience that started you thinking about collapse? Please elaborate on that.

SB: Two events occurred almost simultaneously for Jerry and me. We read Richard Heinberg's book, Power Down, and we experienced Hurricane Rita while living in Houston, Texas.

Power Down really scared us because we had never thought or spoken of a life without oil and electricity. We immediately denied the book, but something made us read more and become intelligent on the topic. As the truth began to sink in, we began to grieve things we still had in everyday life like air conditioning and water and the ability to move from one place to another in a car or plane. We got depressed and still get depressed from time to time, but today there is more moment-forward in our thinking and through our actions.

(As a sidebar to answering this question, my father took many opportunities, usually over suppertime meals, to start conversations that had a common theme: one day civilization would be out of useable oil. Although my father never attended college he was self-educated and well read on the topic of oil depletion. That very theme rang very true for me, as Jerry and I did our own research and began contemplating our reality.)

The second experience that really propelled us was Hurricane Rita. Jerry and I were thoroughly unprepared for Hurricane Rita. Looking back on the lack of preparation, we were idiots without supplies!

Our story began by naively leaving north out of Houston at 5:00 AM the day the hurricane was to come inland in one of the largest mass movements of people in history (3 million people using three different highway systems in 24 hours). There was with no thought of using contra flow traffic to maximize the lanes exiting the city. With a disabled father-in-law, a cat, a dog and a second car with a daughter and her cat we traveled 14 hours and accomplished only 55 miles! Almost out of gas for both vehicles, we decided to turn around. Miraculously, we found gas for both cars and made our 40 minute trip back to Houston.

We returned to our home in Houston that night and almost immediately lost power after the storm began around 11:00 PM. Following the storm that lasted many hours, the intense heat and humidity with no cross ventilation, was barely manageable. In the early days, we never lost heart because every neighbor was saying the power will be right back on. Wrong. It was over two weeks later that power did return. When the water pressure failed, we both knew we were in trouble.

Jerry and I both had a personal incident caused by the intense heat and humidity that was unrelenting. Both incidents occurred at different times. Each of us got overwhelmed and fearful and hopeless. In each case, the other person was able to comfort and talk through their fears and hopelessness that we were both strongly experiencing.

Have I mentioned caring for a man with advanced dementia during this period? We tried to keep up the semblance of calm and routine. When we still had water pressure, showers kept DA (our name for this gentle man who we cared for 7.5 years) cool but the early darkness, worry, and not knowing came to be our pervasive thought patterns. Not healthy.

Thankfully, we came up with an idea to use a rental car (filled with gas) and venture north to stay with a daughter and her family six hours away. We stayed with Stacey for a week until we heard the power was back on in our neighborhood.

Both Power Down and living through the hurricane and its aftermath resounded that we must get prepared! We had just embarked on the journey of our lives!

CB: And then what happened? What led to the next thing and the next, and so on? What books or documentaries influenced you? Which people influenced you?

Jerry and I found the Titanic Lifeboat Academy in Astoria, Oregon. Caren Black and Christopher Paddon have been incredibly helpful and "real" with Jerry and me. I remember bursting into tears after our first telephone conversation with Caren and Christopher. We had found people that felt the same way we did! We were not alone. They assumed nothing and never judged Jerry and me. Their message was simple: "Sell your home, get out of debt, relocate to a more accepting environment and develop an action plan".

We have used their guidance and coaching to keep us moving forward. We have followed their advice and believe today, we have taken mostly the right steps. We have also talked with them about the sensitive topics of choosing to have guns and which guns and for what reasons.

We were able to sell our huge house in one weekend. We have dramatically downsized two times and both times the process has been freeing because it was our choice. We have voluntarily lived in much smaller rental homes for the last three years choosing to save the money instead. We do not feel we are uncomfortable and, in fact, do not even use one of the bedrooms in our current rental home.

Getting out of debt took a while longer, but we accomplished the task of being debt-free. Have I mentioned that we looked for the perfect property in seven states that took 2.5 years? Early in 2008 we found the perfect property in Northeast Oklahoma. We have 27 acres of mostly hard wooded land that has lake access to the second-largest lake in Oklahoma. The property has a creek and two Indian springs. At this point, our property is mostly paid off!

Jerry and I also went from two cars to one luxury vehicle to one car that gets 40 miles to the gallon. When we made the voluntary change from the luxury car to the small car, I had people at the community college I worked at ask if, "We were all right".

I would be remiss not to mention the importance of preparing spiritually for the end of civilization as we know it. Most of the resources noted above deal with strategies for preparedness and things to acquire, NOT the looking inside to see if we are prepared. Carolyn Baker's finest gift (so far) has been her book, Sacred Demise. Simply, read this book!

The book takes you from where you are, as you are reading, and opens up the possibilities and promise for a new civilization transformed from empire, climate change, loss of life, and the defeat of globalization. The book does not sugar-coat. You do not need to believe in a certain religion; only believe in a higher power like the power of nature. Strategies are thoughtfully presented and the reader is never lost. This must read resource is a gift that gently guides the reader how to get in touch with their feminine side so that the reader can prepare their spiritual side. This book gives a perspective that is extremely timely and a breath of fresh air.

Truth to Power has been our beacon. Other people we have read include Matthew Simmons, Richard Heinberg, Sharon Astyk , Julian Darley, James Howard Kunstler, Caren Black and Christopher Paddon from the Titanic Lifeboat Academy, Michael Byron, Steve Solomon, Derrick Jensen, Joel Skousen, Eckhart Tolle, Louise Hay, David Hawkins, Gary Craig, Naomi Klein, Masanobu Fukuoka and Dave Jacke.

CB: As you were finding yourself on this journey, did you sometimes kind of look in the mirror and ask yourself, "What on earth am I doing?" Did you ever wonder if you had lost it or taken leave of your senses?

SB: Jerry and I have come to think of our "knowing" of the end of civilization as a true gift. I do not know exactly why we know but "knowing" gives us another gift, time. There will never be enough time. The precious time we do have is for preparation including helping people to come to terms with their fears, denial, losses and living changes.

CB: How have your family members responded to the changes you've made? Have you had conflicts with them around your changes and if so, how have you dealt with that?

SB: Our family members are still in denial. From time to time someone will ask us what we think will happen. Jerry and I will never give up and we will be ready to answer their questions and quiet their many fears when empire cannot support the lies (OR people will finally get it when people are lined up for food at the grocery store).

We have lovingly given our family key books to read and DVDs to watch to move them from denial. Unfortunately, the blinders are on, and the empire program is still running.

CB: What kinds of emotions have you experienced on this journey? As you are doing what I call "staring collapse in the face", what kinds of feelings emerge? How do you manage those feelings?

SB: As explained in Sacred Demise, the stages of death, dying and loss written so eloquently by Steven Levine and Elizabeth Kubler Ross fit our emotional ups, downs, and plateaus perfectly. Just because you have grieved, does not mean you will not feel this emotion again. Jerry and I often are saddened by the special aspects of life we will one day say goodbye to like taking a warm shower, seeing a special exhibit at a museum, hearing a symphony orchestra or enjoying the bliss of a sushi meal.

Frank discussion has immensely helped Jerry and me when the raw emotions come flooding back. Time and checking your perspective and good conversation are great healers. About two years ago one of my faculty members, Karen, woke up after watching "What A WayTo Go". Karen was experiencing panic and fear. Jerry and I had her over to dinner and talked with her and shared our thoughts and feelings. We did mostly active listening, validating Karen's fears and started a conversation that continues today but over the internet, since we have moved from Texas to Oklahoma.

One other thing I have done along my personal journey is to post pertinent articles outside my office at the university. The articles range from climate change to pandemics to sustainability to gardening, to overpopulation, to transition communities, to peak everything, and food shortage. People often comment. I take their first comment or question to start asking them what their thoughts are on whatever topic they bring up. The interest is always sincere and often mixed with some anxious humor. I then ask if they would like to receive newsworthy and pertinent articles. Currently, I have 40 people (referred to as Friends and Family) that I send out articles to via the internet. And, I'd have to confess many of the articles come right from Carolyn's site, Truth to Power.

In this small group of Friends and Family, I can honestly begin to see a few waking up based simply on their responses and questions. I am a hopeful individual, maybe even a Pollyanna of sorts because I will never give up on the hopefulness of mankind. I do not believe a magic red pill will save civilization. I believe that mankind will accept and transition into a very different civilization like the very difficult yet rewarding one described by James Howard Kunstler in his novel, A World Made By Hand.

CB: I'm wondering what the role of community is in your life. It's a lonely, if not hostile, world out there if one is talking to most people about collapse. Where do you get support?
SB: It has just occurred to me that the forty people just referred to as Friends and Family is an example of a community of sorts!

Community is the one area where we have the most unsettled plans and, consequently, fears about what our community will look like and who will become its settlers. This is a work in progress!

I can tell you that Jerry and I have each other, two dogs and one cat. We moved from Houston, Texas to Northeast Oklahoma in mid-December 2008. The temperature was in the 80's and very humid as we said our goodbyes to Houston. Ten hours later we experienced a blustery chill factor of 9 degrees in Northeast Oklahoma. Our animals thought we were totally crazy!

Let me describe a little more our situation and plan to transition. Jerry and I both have full-time jobs. We are living in a community 65 miles from our homestead property. Although this is not an ideal situation for developing community, we have taken many steps to introduce and familiarize ourselves with neighbors and the nearby town. We have found the people of Oklahoma sincerely friendly and helpful.

Our goal is to have our yurt sitting on our deck by late summer 2009. One of the scenarios we have accepted is that our yurt could provide the housing we need if things crater by early fall 2009. The transition to the yurt would be difficult but, we believe, realistically possible.

Currently, we are building a thirty-by-thirty-foot deck that will support our first building, a yurt. The yurt is twenty-eight feet in diameter and is being built in Virginia by the Buffalo Mountain Yurt Company. The people building our yurt will be delivering the yurt once the deck is finished and assisting Jerry and me in the "yurt raising." This will be accomplished by late summer 2009.

The yurt will provide temporary housing while we build our first Earth Ship! Several years ago, Jerry and I attended a week long workshop on Earth ship building in Taos, New Mexico. We stayed in an Earth Ship and were fascinated by the design allowing for the structure to be fully off-the-grid in any climate. The temperature outside in Taos was 120 degrees and the inside of our Earth Ship was a constant 72 degrees! The founder, Michael Reynolds, has spent his lifetime fine tuning the design of these unique living structures. (I strongly recommend seeing the site.)

To read the remainder of this article, you must be a Truth to Power subscriber.

Susan Bedwell may be contacted at susanlbedwell@aol.com

[In the next few months, Truth to Power will be featuring interviews with individuals who are consciously transitioning to a post-carbon lifestyle. In spite of the volumes being written about preparation for collapse, we rarely have the opportunity to hear real people discuss at length the process they have gone through and continue to navigate in their unique journeys through the Long Emergency. Some articles in the series will be published free in their entirety, and some will be partially published, requiring a subscription to Truth to Power in order to read the full article.

Everyone's story of preparation is different; there is no one-size-fits-all model. This series of interviews with real people preparing for collapse will honor the uniqueness of those individuals and the methods of preparation that serve them in their particular situations.--CB]