I am sure at least some readers have memorized parts of the Bible as they were growing up:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:25-34)

and Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not (be in) want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death; I will fear no evil: for thou
art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies: thou anointest
my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life; and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord for ever.

There are religious songs that go with these as well. When has a person has these "playing in the background", it is hard to be quite as anxious.

This is not the popular approach now days, but this, or something like it, was what quite a few of our forefathers relied on.

My problem is that I can think of a number of positives about peak oil - but they are all immediately negated by the sheer numbers of people around me. My main stress reducer is being out in the natural world. Once one's consciousness is changed, it's a constant pleasure to delight in starry skies, clear springs, moss on rocks, etc. But then I worry about the fragility of all these things due to the sheer mass of humanity. I am glad I didn't have offspring.

It isn't that difficult to get away easily to a beautiful place that engages all one's attention. The problem is, a car is sort of necessary to make it the 25 miles or so that hold the "nearby" lovely areas, lol.

Poems, Prayers & Promises
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7P8pPYSXhk

I happen to be non religious so I take my comfort from nature, as beautiful and uncaring as she is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qkGoqAZrqI

I think the increasing scarcity of oil may bring about some positive things.

I don't think that the world will fall off of a cliff. The price will go up, and people will cope. They'll consolidate trips, they'll drive less. People will carpool, or ride the bus. People will be forced to (gasp) talk to each other.
Life will slow down. Businesses might actually be closed on Sundays again.

Do you remember after 9/11, the feeling that swept the country? People were quieter. More polite. Humble. They also started to think about the things in life that are truly important. On 9/12, I remember how strange it was not to hear or see commercial jets in the sky. On 9/13, I reveled in it. I'm sorry it takes such drastic and terrible events, but I'd like to see that feeling return.

Oil prices will rise, but then demand will fall, and the price will regulate. Price will be high, but people will think about what it's being used for. Things will change, and I look forward to that.

I think that (we) Americans are a lot more resilient than we give ourselves credit for sometimes. Do you think we could go from evening's entertainment being dinner at a chain restaurant and the latest blockbuster at the megaplex to cooking at home with friends and pitching horseshoes?

I think so.

John Lennon - Imagine (acoustic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTywHAFZxcU

3)What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

Clair de Lune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

All this terror over end of oil doom gives me a pain. Thirty years ago I figured the empire for doom and was glad of it. Nobody had heard of peak oil, global warming or a dozen other things. It gradually became clear to me that the world as I had always known it wasn't about to collapse and that nobody gave a shit about renewable energy. So, nothing to do but use the black stuff up as quickly as possible. So we're finally getting there. The quicker it's gone the quicker people will learn how to live differently. Can't happen soon enough to suit me.

1. I cope with anxiety in general through meditation, by doing a lot of inner work to reduce my reactivity and bring myself into closer touch with who I truly am, and by cultivating non-attachment. I follow a path composed of equal parts of Buddhism, Carl Jung and Jim Kunstler. Seriously.

2. Mental preparation is much more important to me than canned food and ammo. What I said above applies here. I try to accept the world as it is, in the hope that as circumstances change around me I will see them for what they actually are, and will respond to them with consciousness, wisdom and compassion. I feel compassion is likely to be much more important to my survival than bullets. Being able to make and support friends, and to be generous in times of hardship is the core of community. And community is the one thing that has always been essential.

3. The Sufi poetry of Hafiz has always given my heart wings.

If You Don't Stop That

I used to live in
A cramped house with confusion
And pain.

But then I met the Friend
And started getting drunk
And singing all
Night.

Confusion and Pain
Started acting nasty,
Making threats,
With talk like this,

"If you don't stop 'that' -
All that fun -

We're
Leaving."

Preparing mentally is a tough challenge. Being part of TOD helps.

A few days back a post posed the question “do doomers really want something bad to happen”. Oh my, am I guilty of this. I later wrote a reply, for me writing things out helps to clarify issues. By then the thread was old so I just saved it. This seems to be a good place to post my reply.

Is there an aspect of “doomers” that WANTS something really bad to happen. I think so. It comes from the hatred of the sub optional dysfunctional aspects of our society. Hatred is a type of anger and anger is self-hidden fear. Therefore, what is the fear that is driving the hatred.

I suspect it comes from knowingness that the wonder of our brief time as physical beings is seriously compromised by the aggregate dysfunctional mindset. It is the fear of this totally unnecessary tragedy that drives the hatred of the manifested aspects of this dysfunctional mindset.

The challenge for doomers is to acknowledge this fear and to realize that hoping for some type of total destruction is feeding this fear. Feeding fears subconsciously makes the feared event more likely to happen.

This is tough to do when it seems that crash and burn has all ready happened, we just don’t know it yet. It’s like being in a car running 120mph, and accelerating, toward a wall that is 50’ away. Your thinking that at 70mph you need 200’ to stop…

The antidoomer types can help by acknowledging the mess we are in and presenting plausible, realistic solutions. It is easy to run amuck when this fear has its way with you and a little realty check sure helps.

What seems the best, likely the only, solution? We all must reduce our ecological footprint to the lowest possible level. Funny thing about this is we must work less. Become human beings, not human doings. We must become happier, more content. However, we all have to work together for this common goal.

It does not mean going backwards, returning to the 1800’s is not a viable option. Maybe a future mostly urban hobbit style life of some type could even handle our present population. Endless physical growth is non-sustainable, but mental growth has not this constraint.

Once again, mindset issues are the endgame.

"If a man thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole."
David Bohm, "Wholeness and the Implicate Order", p. xi

"Don't seek fame or profit, glory or prosperity. Just pass life as it is , according to conditions. When the breath vanishes who is the master? After the death of the body, there is only an empty name. When your clothes are worn out, repair them over and over; when there is no food, work to provide. How long can an illusory body last? For its idle concerns would you increase your ignorance?"
— Zen Master Dongshan Liangjie (b. 807)

I recommend the book "When Things Fall Apart" by Pema Chödrön... actually I recommend all her books. I am not sure that the first two questions are different.

It seems to me that if you have a spiritual practice (you don't have to be a theist to have some form of mindfulness practice) it is a good idea to become proficient. Courage is going to be an important attribute as will calm. One way to cope is to take action... grow at least some of your food, even if it is a tomato plant in a pot or some herbs. Turn off the damn TV. Read "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman. It is a history of the 14th century, and it will make you glad to be alive now. Read anything by Robert Aitken, the late leader of the Diamond Sangha Zen community on the Island of Oahu, Hawai'i. Read the poems of Rumi. Read the Sermons of Meister Eckhart. I second the suggestion already made about the Gospel of Thomas.

Go for a walk. Split some wood and stack it. Write a poem. Read a story to a child, or better yet make one up as you tell it. Help a child build something with simple tools some boards and nails. Practice patience: Watch a spider spin a web, or spend an hour doing nothing.

Etc.

There is a tendency to feel personal guilt about the fact that you believe (know) that the world as we have known it is heading for a cliff. Occasionally (less frequently as time goes on) friends will ask me for my opinion on the current financial crisis or some recent news regarding energy and the economy. For a time I found myself prefacing my responses with a an apology. "Sorry, but I think we are on the brink of some extremely difficult times, because ........" Finally, I have decided not to be sorry. While certainly not overjoyed by future prospects I am intensely curious as to how events will play out over the months and years to come. I now refer to myself as "the happy pessimist." Yes, we are rapidly moving into a far more uncertain and challenging era, but it will also be exciting and, most certainly, interesting. Growing a garden, raising chickens, spending less money while living simply, finding pleasure in riding my bike, repairing some broken tool, being active in a local sustainability group and just taking time to appreciate the beauty of my environment leave no time or space for regret about what may come. When asked, I still share my thoughts on the problems and realities facing us. However, I feel no compulsion to inject my views into the conversation or to argue with others who insist that all of our problems can and will be solved by science/ technology and the American spirit. Events will all-too-soon test whatever opinions we may have.

1) Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

2) Preparing mentally by getting going physically: various cooperative projects in the community, mostly food-related.

3) Song: Translucent Carriages by Pearls Before Swine; or anything by Popol Vuh. Poem: Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Story: Hesse's The Glass Bead Game.

I try, although some times it is hard, to find the humor in things while steadily completing the big things in my "Sustainability To Do Jar". Things like a NZE home, learning how to be a farmer, building community greenhouses, rain water harvesting, teaching sustainability classes, canning, etc. I have not quite brought myself to start storing survival food and learning how to shoot YET but maybe someday.

I find it very hard to tell friends about PO, or at least the economic pole reversal we are about to experience so I try to lead by example and help those that are willing to become sustainable right now and hopefully others will follow.

I will leave you with these new words to a song I created for a song that is an old favorite of mine, The Beverly Hillbillies" theme song.

Song Title:
Lets all be hillbillies

Come ‘n listen to our story ‘bout this ting PEAK OIL
And the consequences of it dat ill make your blood boil
Cause one day you be shop‘in for some food
And they won’t have none, cause we used up all our crude

Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea

Well, the first thing you know, no one’s a millionare
And in fact we can’t afford to drive anywhere
Some said the country is the place you oughta go
So we loaded up the mule and moved out to Ithica

Eco Village that is, no swimming pools, no movie stars

We organized and localized and agreed it weren’t fare
That the @#*& government didn’t make us aware
We took it upon ourselves to be sustainable
Supported local markets and ignored all that bull

Markets that is, exponential growth, corporate bailouts

Now we’ll say goodbye to all those economic rules
And happily move around without those fossil fuels
We invite you to join us in thinking locally
By sharing what we have, THAT’S HOSPITALITY

Community style, back to basics, home grown

We’ll all go back in time now, ya hear

Being a Boy Scout, EMT, mountain climber, outdoorsman and Father, I’ve learned that life is not entirely under our control. I work hard to separate that which I can affect and control from that which I cannot. I think it’s called acceptance. Read, think, discuss, reflect on your situation and keep a clear head. Plan for the worst, hope for the best and settle for something in the middle. For the Sailors out there this Veterans Day, “Steady as she goes, there’s rough weather ahead.”

I imagine that all of us look very closely at this subject,
probably daily. I become too attached, too identified with
peak oil, and all that it encompasses.

So, I stop and listen to Eckhart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deq_1lg9Dlo

And then I try to be here, now.

Thanks for the Desiderata poem. Beautiful.

At this time of year I usually feel a bit blase due in part to the copious amounts of rain and cloud cover. This year, I'm feeling more blah than in the past and I know that my reading list is a part of the problem. The past month, I've been reading Kunstler, Heinberg, Vandana Shiva, Lester Brown and TOD. It is like taking the anti-prozac. Almost a recipe for madness.

Today I took a long walk in the snow and tried not to think about the IEA news. Just me and the crunch of the snow beneath my feet and the lake and the beautiful trees. Walking meditation.

Let's face it, what most of us have in our heads is scary stuff and most people on the streets either don't get it or don't care to discuss it. That in itself is very intellectually and emotionally isolating for many of us. We peak geeks are a rare breed. I'm thankful to TOD for providing a forum for our mental union.

Gratefulness in general is an important coping mechanism. Each night I try to think about what each day has given me.

The 3 M's also help: Meditation, MJ and Michael Franti. I think you'll find these songs capture the peak oil feeling - ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FE9cPXE3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBM7NWTA-Qc&NR=1

and, don't forget to SMILE!!!

1 & 2) I don't know if I cope very well all the time, but when I start becoming hysterical (and non-productive) about all our problems, I remember that the really important things will never change. Life may become very hard, but true friends and family will always be more important, and don't require much infrastructure or cheap energy. I learn skills and knowledge so I can help my friends if TSHTF, not so I can be a Mad Max.

3) "This too shall pass."

I think many may think of me as an uber-doomer, but logically that cannot be so, simply because when I read William Catton, he scares me, and if I really was an uber-doomer, he would not, and I might even enjoy reading him, but I don't, not really, though I think he knows the score.

I think of myself as a realist, and as a professional teacher, I try to be as truthful as I can. I'm sure what I say sometimes is not politically correct, but I find the graduate and undergraduate students seem open to what I say to them. The faculty meetings, OTOH, are surreal--just arranging the deck chairs, whistling past the graveyard, what-me-worry stuff, etc., so I am silent.

Folks, how bad it will get depends largely upon us. There's the challenge. One could always bail to the life of a subsistence farmer in a tropical land, and perhaps be happy, but maybe the higher calling is to stick it out and help the neighbors, to go down fighting the good fight. If you're depressed, chances are you are worried about losing what we had, but perhaps it was never really worth having in the first place, the only real gold is within you and the value you get when you help others, so help them, as they need it and you'll feel better giving.

I enjoy listening to the free podcasts from Zencast.org as listenting moves me more into the present rather than experiencing anxiety about the future.

I live in the country and am often alone with my milk goats, cattle, chickens, dogs, and cats when my husband is away. At times I miss community. I feel too awkward approaching my neighbors about my concerns for the future although they probably know I'm a bit "different" since I ride my bike 8 miles into town to buy groceries and animal feed.

So, seeing the comments from others makes me feel more connected to a community of like-minded people. Thank you.

There is something liberating about focusing on the important stuff.

I focus on doing what I can do. I can take care of myself. I can take care of the people around me. I can garden, each year learning more and gardening better. The only two forms of wealth that count during massive economic restructuring are social capital and the fertility of the soil. Any thing else that survives the commotion is a bonus.

Tomorrow I will dig out the uniform from the back of my closet and attend a young soldier's last trip home. His grandmother is a friend of mine. She is beyond distraught.

We just think that we have problems.

It's always dangerous, from a mental health perspective, to get too close to any one subject. It can be referred to as stalking, obsession, paranoia, anxiety, neurosis, etc. So, don't get too close to PO.....put some space around it.

That space can be religion, nature, meditation, song, or any number of things that work for each of us on an individual level. Work is an option...and seems to be my personal karma:-)

Also, make friends with your devils. Make friends with fear. Facing fear does make it disappear.

As a young boy of 9, and having already spent time in seven foster families, I was walking to school in the snow and cold having been informed that I was moving again. As a young Catholic, I was distraught and praying for guidance. Lo and behold, I distinctly heard a voice say to me, "I hear your prayers, and am going to give you three A's to pay attention to." Those three A's were:

Adaptability
Attitude
Appreciation

I've always been a fan of appreciation as being the most important of the three. But maybe adaptability will become the most important lesson I heard that day.

(1)

I actually recently just asked a number of friends this question.

The answers were:
1. Regular, rhythmic exercise -- aerobics, running, biking, anything without too much thinking.
2. Sunlight -- at least 1hr a day of full-body sunlight.
3. Sunday trips to the lake, or some other weekly close-range getaway to get away from things and relax.
4. Talking to a therapist.
5. Talking about my problems with friends.
6. Lots of pot.

and further down the list was my solution:
7. 1-5 plus antianxiety medication from my psychiatrist (clonazepam). Alas, not much of a pot person, it's probably easier to come by in a post-collapse world than prescription meds.

(2)

I'm not afraid of death (distinct from being worried about the process of dying)... I know that even if the worst happens, I'm still going to be better off than a lot of people are right now. I'm gay, so I don't plan on having any children to worry about. Being a Taoist helps. I suspect being any religion helps. Athiests just seem to be generally rational people, and rationality is not the greatest thing in the world when it comes to coping with human emotion. Have books around for when the internet goes dark. Learn to appreciate the little things... whatever "little" means for you (family, friends, a home, food, ...)

(3)

Inner Universe from the Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex Soundtrack. It's amazing. I used to use it to wake up fir 4am yoga when I was preparing for oral exams in grad school (I'm an "afternoon" person, so I needed to make sure that my 9am exam was in the "afternoon" to my biological clock).

Sky Blue by Peter Gabriel -- as a musician, this piece is stunningly well done.

Miserere by Gregorio Allegri sung by Pro Cantione Antiqua -- an amazing piece of Renaissance a capella music (I'm a singer).

Anything by Sigur Ros is usually a good bet if you like ambient music.

Venus and Sex Born Poison by Air -- beautiful electronic music, great melodies, no oomp-sha.

Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part (a should have an oomlat) -- modern classical music piece with absolutely mind blowing (mind blanking?) beauty. String quartet with piano in places with some amazingly soulful chords of dissonance, symphonic interludes.

"Book of Secrets" by Osho. Truly a brilliant guy, his book of 112 meditation techniques manages to convey techniques I've used successfully to turn all sorts of horrible situations into valuable opportunities to learn, without being preachy.

Read Terry Pratchett.

I meditate, go cycling, go sailing with my wife (http://sweet-bluesette.blogspot.com), and enjoy cooking - especially things we, extended family, and neighbors have grown. I smile at people, tell jokes, laugh a lot, and try to live a life of gratitude.

A student of Buddhism for a long time, I like this quote, which appears at the end of the movie "Heaven and Earth" (1993):

"When we resist our fate we suffer.
When we accept it we are happy.

"We have time in abundance, an eternity, to repeat our mistakes. But we need only once correct our mistake and at last hear the song of enlightenment, with which we can break the chain of vengeance forever. In your heart you can hear it now. It is the song your spirit has been singing since the moment of your birth.

"If the monks are right, and nothing happens without cause, then the gift of suffering is to bring us closer to God, to teach us to be strong when we are weak, to be brave when we are afraid, to be wise in the midst of confusion and to let go of that which we can no longer hold.

"Lasting victories are won in the heart, not on this land or that." ~ Phong Thi Le Ly Hayslip

1) How do you cope with anxiety in general?

What anxiety? I go to work like every day. Geese, look around, it’s not here yet. I personally think that generally people have a bottom line like stubbing their toe is really, really the total far out end. One time I was curled up in a bunker in the fetal position and VC rockets were landing close all around. Since then I have followed the idea “Happiness is no incoming.”

"Lynford you're fired." Smile; "Thank you, would you care to join me for coffee"

2) How are you preparing mentally for when TSHTF? Is this more important than having a year’s supply of freeze dried food in the basement?

I go to work like every day. The stores may not be able to keep up so I started to learn about gardening. I now have a supply of food, a solar powered golf cart (7KW) to run the well. I know no one will take care of me and my family so I get to work outside for a while. Really fun watching things grow. Needed some garden tools so I bought them and learned how to use them. My electric wood shop where I build "simple oriental" furniture may not work so I got some hand tools and learned how to use them. My wife knows how to can. I built a solar drier. Tomatoes and other stuff is OK and takes about a day in August to dry. Made some soup out of some of it but it needed different seasoning. It was better than Dundee’s iguana and you can live on it. Apples are ripe this week so I will dry a bunch of them. Next I will make a bunch of turkey jerky because Taleb's cornucopian turkeys will be cheap like five or six bucks for a 20 pounder. I have all the materials to make a parabolic solar cooker so I need to assemble it and test it this winter.

3) What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

An old song … “There are no fighter pilots down in hell. Oh, there are no fighter pilots down in hell. The place is full of queers, navigators and bombardiers but there are no fighter pilots down in hell.” See, no worries; at least for me YMMV.

I doubt if I will ever intellectually understand “Zen” but a couple days after reading “One Straw Revolution” I really saw a tree in my back yard last summer. I don’t know why I saw it. It had no words describing it though I know it is a seasonal green tree about eight inches in diameter and 20 feet tall. I directly saw the object without any sort of duality of difference between me and it. Tears came to my eyes I was so happy. These things are all around; you just have to see them. I don’t set very well so I know it wasn’t a ‘Zen’ thing per se, maybe just a reality thing. I wonder if the whole damn universe is just one thing. If so, how can there be badness or goodness? I don't think that thinking about the problem will figure it out. You just have to see it direct and life is pretty funny. Here we are dancing around about something that hasn't happened yet.

About the time I was going to ship out of Luke AFB, Phoenix to Vietnam my aunt and uncle (bless them) showed up from Indiana. They have religion. My uncle had a vision that something bad would happen to me. On their way out to Arizona they stopped by a prayer tower somewhere in Oklahoma to get some help praying for me. I think it cost them a lot of money too. Well Uncle George was almost right but all the praying that went on certainly helped too so here I am still kicking at 76 no worse for the wear. I personally wouldn't put prayer too far down.

Anyone who spends all their time writing here and on other sites instead of assembling their caca will not make it. Sorry bout that.

I am of the general opinion that I am unlikely to "make it" by trying to squirrel away supplies and learn survival skills. I am not much of a tool user, don't like things very much, and am more comfortable with ideas and people in that order. I had a spike of anxiety after reading the story about the creative data management at IEA--kind of a reality check. I really want the BAU optimists to be right. When it hits home that we haven't really got very long before we see bigger trouble, another layer of denial is stripped away. It does help me to give voice to my anxiety even in a post such as this.

My nephew and his wife just had twin daughters. I visit them and hold the little ones and bring chicken biriyani for these new parents. Quite a few posters write of their spiritual roots. My father's side of the family was Jewish, my mother's side was Catholic, Anglican, and Jewish. I have had some encounters with Buddhism and meditation. In one of the gnostic gospels, Jesus is quoted as saying, "God causes the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike and God causes the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous alike." Whatever happens is independent of our goodness. All I know is that life is good now. I don't know how long it will be good; we must all let go of the sweetness of life at some time. In the mean time, I savor.

I am of the general opinion that I am unlikely to "make it" by trying to squirrel away supplies and learn survival skills. I am not much of a tool user, don't like things very much, and am more comfortable with ideas and people in that order. I had a spike of anxiety after reading the story about the creative data management at IEA--kind of a reality check. I really want the BAU optimists to be right. When it hits home that we haven't really got very long before we see bigger trouble, another layer of denial is stripped away. It does help me to give voice to my anxiety even in a post such as this.

My nephew and his wife just had twin daughters. I visit them and hold the little ones and bring chicken biriyani for these new parents. Quite a few posters write of their spiritual roots. My father's side of the family was Jewish, my mother's side was Catholic, Anglican, and Jewish. I have had some encounters with Buddhism and meditation. In one of the gnostic gospels, Jesus is quoted as saying, "God causes the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike and God causes the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous alike." Whatever happens is independent of our goodness. All I know is that life is good now. I don't know how long it will be good; we must all let go of the sweetness of life at some time. In the mean time, I savor.

I almost forgot to relate this: I nearly died in an industrial accident when I was twenty. Spent about a month in the hospital, lost my spleen and got a nice belly scar as a result. The best thing I gained was a deep appreciation for the little things, like just not being in physical pain can make it a very good day. That's one of the main reasons I live in Hawaii, because I turned down an offer of a graduate scholarship to Stanford and went to UH instead. Like Mark Twain said, it's what you didn't do that you'll regret twenty years down the road, so cast those bow lines, set sail, literally try to get lost, get on with your life, enjoy it.

I have no regrets, every day is bonus overtime for me.

i am not sure where to start here, the theme here seems to be put your hands in the air and give up.
It would appear bible prophecy is the "soup d'jour" today. May as well ride it out. Right?
Well, let me ask, who is calling the shots here? The Bible? or the people? I say a certain group of people are calling the shots. We are about to see an increasing oppression of virtually everything we do or use.

There is a group of people (world bankers) running everything. Check out . We are being played. We are being used. You like being played/used? me neither. Listen to Alex Jones at infowars.com

Watch "End Game, The Obama Deception or Fall of the Republic" on Youtube.

Our elected officials are going to run us down the river. They voted in TARP, (though the citizens of the USA were against it, and the switchboards at congress/senate were overloaded ), The majority of the Americans reject a government takeover of health care, (yet congress voted for it, as well as cap and tax, oops i mean't cap and and trade).
Our elected officals are purposely ignoring the requests of their constituitents. They need to be voted out.

Gerald Celente (youtube him) and Alex Jones at "infowars.com" seem to be on the same page.

Get informed and get involved! vote the incumbents out!

Wave 3 on the economy is happening, get ready for the Dow to drop down to below 3000. more likely down to 2400.

I really hate to spread info like this, have been here 3 yrs, and I hate to sound like a doomer, but i must feel that i must spread this info.

The economy is about to hit the fan! Time to buckle up and hold on tight. Times about to worsen, get your survive ability ready.

Barry Mcguire (woodstock 1969) sang that song "eve of destruction", well here we are, on the eve, except it's not nuclear, it's all about world governance.

We are all being played/used by a group of world elites.

get informed!

What a great chat around the Campfire.

I'm a retired bachelor living on SS and have almost finished an isolated cabin and garden in the Boston Mountains. I'm lucky that my good neighbor up the road is building a clan, several related families, and you have to go through their property to get to mine.

I enjoy my friends and family; they don't want to hear about the problems, I don't speak. I figure peak America was summer of 1963; it's still good, I'm enjoying it while I can.

1) I read stuff and and eat reasonaby limited ammounts of comfort food.

2) I try to understand and solve problems. Hopefully this overlaps with the physical preparations for bad times since a problem solver might be usefull for someone. The only thing more important then a healthy mind is having access to air to breath.

3) I use to take a map of some physical infrastructure and contemplate how it functions, how it came to be, where it is growing and where it is withering. And debating things on the net can be good too.

I have gatherd enough good ideas to be sure that this dont have to be especially bad, at least not locally where I live.

I have done what I can to prepare. I have been aware of the issues for some time and I have acted with knowledge and some forethought. I have done the best I can. I enjoy life with a wry awareness that I may look back on these relatively affluent times with a sense of loss. I live every day as though it were my last for one day i am sure to be right.

I live with two ADHDers so reading about peak oil IS my rest and recouperation.

I read a great anecdote years back about some US marines who were doing the island hoping across the Pacific in WWII.

A platoon were taking a rest from the action behind a low stone wall when suddenly a Japanese suicide bomber was standing on top of it. He held a grenade against his abdomen which exploded and amazingly none of the marines were hurt. The suicide bomber was blown back over the wall by the blast but his intestines spilled out fowards over the man directly bellow where he stood. This marine looked round at his buddies and said;

"Gee! was I hit that bad?"

This caused the entire platoon to burst into an uncontrolled fit of laughter lasting 10 minutes. It was this ability to laugh at the dire situation they found themselves in which relieved the massive stress they all faced and many said that the fighting over the next few days after the incident was easier to cope with.

Thank you for this thread. It's nice to hear others voicing the same things, that even if I am a delusional lunatic, I'm not the only one ;o)

1) How do you cope with anxiety in general?

I find it more and more difficult. I guess I'm a problem-solver at heart, so I try to solve problems, but they seem to be further and further out of my control. Even trying to help my immediate friends and family is an uphill struggle, apart from my father who is another rational problem-solver and willing to listen to well-reasoned argument. I suppose I cope by convincing myself that my efforts can really do something to help those around me. But then I go to seminars or read articles about climate change and peak oil and somehow it all seems like waving a little flag at an oncoming tsunami. I go rowing and running and exercise hard to keep my mind off things (although with half a thought towards the idea that this is also good mental and physical preparation for hardship ahead). I do a lot of things with local groups and I try to bring PO and climate issues into conversation as often and unthreateningly as possible - every time someone asks for more information, I celebrate a little victory :o) I take pleasure in small things and everything I do, I do whole-heartedly. My friends would definitely call me an optimist (the annoying type!). I think the quote about "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" sums it up well.

2) How are you preparing mentally for when TSHTF? Is this more important than having a year’s supply of freeze dried food in the basement?

I still haven't worked out where I want to be when that happens. I'm not in the right place now, that's for sure. Freeze dried food is all very well, but it is not a solution, only a postponement of the inevitable. I think I am just not ready for what other people's reactions will be. I know I could not run to the hills and live by myself mentally, though I might be able to physically. In some ways I wish it would happen early and have it all out, but at the same time it is clear that we need longer to prepare. But then we actually need to use the time to prepare!! I have certainly changed my own expectations of what my future holds. I am trying to find more local like-minded people.

3) What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

- Gary Snyder

I am learning to play the piano. I didn't learn an instrument as a child, and couldn't even read music, and had always regretted that. I knew of a wonderful teacher, and so about five years ago started to take lessons, once a week before work. My piano book is called "Accelerated Piano Adventures for the Older Beginner," which just about sums it up. Reasons why learning to play the piano is good: it's a domain of life where I can see discernible progress. I like watching myself learn. Playing better comes from an interesting combination of striving and relaxing. The music itself is soothing, the way the different parts fit together, the melody, the harmony, the rhythm (I am now working on a minuet from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.) I can work on each aspect by itself, tapping out the rhythm, then working out the left hand, then the right hand, but in the end I have to bring it all together, which requires focusing on none and yet on all in some complicated way that I don't fully understand but which seems pertinent to systems thinking. When all is going well, playing the piano fills up my awareness in a flow-y state that pushes worries aside temporarily. And if worse comes to worst, I can have music without electricity. From a Peak Oil perspective, it probably would have been better to choose a more portable instrument, but I figure when you find a great teacher, you learn what that teacher has on offer, which in this case was piano.

First, I keep ties with persons older than I am, and I help them. Persons in their 80's may need a hand, and it does our heart good to lend a hand. I also look to those who have lived exemplary lives, and search for gems that they have left for us. Here's an example: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090129jk.html.

Second, I juggle every morning and take careful notes of my thoughts, feelings and the flashes of inspiration that occasionally hit me. I learned to juggle as a kid but started back in earnest a few years ago. Drops, misses, collisions, drifts and days when I'm all thumbs are inevitable and offer a daily metaphor of how ephemeral life is.

Third, I'm a recent new student of afterlife and reincarnation, which started after what I can only describe as a revelation. There's much on the subject. Here are some great interviews from some cautious academics: http://www.ial.goldthread.com/interviews.html

Finally, I think about what heroism is, preparing myself for that moment when or if I'm called. Cousin to suicide is martyrdom, which is a kind of end that we ought to examine if we are looking to grapple with the huge challenge of solving the problems of the nation. Christians—the real kind—are fed to the lions. Those criminal alphas in control, those who enjoy being high and mighty, will not step down without a fight. Opposing them will release the banshees of hell on you. Opposing the lying, stealing, cheating, propagandizing, murdering and war crimes against innocent peoples that our leaders have done requires doing more than writing to our Congressperson or sending a letter to the local paper. Politicians will not directly face the big issues like Peak Oil because these are such a downer and because there is no magic solution. Correcting the system requires passive resistance, civil disobedience and outright defiance of and contempt for those who have broken sacred trusts. I am not inclined naturally to throw my life away; but if we believe the historical record, many persons have made the hard choice to die opposing their oppressors rather than to give in to what they might have considered evil. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates in his final speech gives the classic argument that we have little to fear in so doing because we know not what death has in store for us:

"To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?"—Socrates (470?-399 B.C)

Peak Peace anyone?

"The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent,
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction however,
and heaven and hell are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to know the truth,
then hold no opinion for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the dis-ease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the minds essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space,
where nothing is lacking and noting is in excess.
Indeed it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous view will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity,
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.
..."
For those who can't get enough Oneness, here is the rest
http://www.afan.uk.net/stuff/world-views/buddhist/great-way-not-difficul...

Peak Oil. Ah so.

My hunch is, we are all pretty much saying the same thing. We want Inner Peace under any condition. Because as long as Inner Peace depends on conditions, there is none. Because there is always that anxiety of what will happen if conditions fall apart. That's why I am more attracted to Oneness than religion. Except we have preferences as to the language we want to hear/say it in. I sure do. I have a preference. I'd like to have that no-preference state of mind. But I can't kid myself about not being there. And if and when I get there, it won't matter. Funny about that.

I guess, the blessing of Peak Oil is, it'll be the big test of whether or not we are there yet.

Peak Peace anyone?

Meanwhile, it's nice to hang out with you drummers. Been lurkin' long enough. Happy Peakin'.

Happy Peakin'

I'm ready to admit that I've walked through my own valley of death in PO thinking. It didn't help that I read Latoc, dieoff and some other 'limited scenario outcome' sites :)

But now I'm glad I did. (2)

I really boils down to what Herman Kahn said:

"We must appreciate these possibilities. We cannot wish them away."

To be able to intentionally think about the unthinkable, however low probability, and to come out on the other side, functioning and with sanity intact is a useful trait.

But I don't think it can be quick-trained or transferred from another person. A period of anxiety and not-so-constructive thoughts ARE a part of this process - to a varying degree and depending on personality of course. However, if there are no negative and overloading thoughts, one has not gone deep enough, but barely scratched the surface. Yet, experiencing these thoughts is what eventually makes one stronger. If life is always easy, how well prepared is one in a face of insurmountable adversity?

One must walk the walk oneself. Truth is a pathless land.

Still, if one has the tendency to drop back to overly doomerish states of mind (everybody can draw their own line here), then I think the obvious advice of being present and mindful helps a lot.(2)

'Discipline' is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you're wrong. But self-discipline is different. It's the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret. They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it. But look within and watch the stuff coming up--restlessness, anxiety, impatience, pain-- just watch it come up and don't get involved. Much to your surprise, it will simply go away. It rises, it passes away. As simple as that. There is another word for 'self-discipline'. It is 'Patience'.

- Mindfulness In Plain English, H. Gunaratana (1)

Is it easy? Hell no. But if there's no other way that works, why not try it. It works.

You can't change the whole world, but you can change how you react to it. That's what can be practised, imho.

(3) As for words of wisdom, there are many and many in Finnish, but recently I was told this and found it apt for this occasion:

Many years ago, a wise peasant lived in China.

He had a son who was the apple of his eye and a fine white stallion, which everyone admired. One day his horse escaped from his grounds and disappeared. The villagers came to him one by one and said: "You are such an unlucky man. It is such bad luck that your horse escaped." The peasant responded: "Who knows. Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good." The next day the stallion returned followed by 12 wild horses. The neighbours visited him again and congratulated him for his luck. Again, he just said: "Who knows. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad."

The next day his son attempted to break in one of the wild horses when he fell down and broke his leg. Once more, everyone came with their condolences: "It's terrible." Again, he replied: "Who knows. Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good."

A few days passed and his poor son was limping around the village with his broken leg, when the emperor's army entered the village announcing that a war was starting and they required all the young men of the village to join the army. However, they left behind the peasant's son since he had a broken leg. Everyone was extremely jealous of the peasant. They talked about his sheer good luck, while the old man just muttered: "Who knows. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad."

Or as Seneca put it:

"A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor."

every time i see a leaf or blade of grass poking its way through a crack in the concrete, i smile.
PO is a countdown to when the rivers can finally wash themselves clean, when forests can finally start to regrow,
when the air and oceans can finally let the poisons settle and be locked away in sediments. Knowledge of
the difficult times ahead for us as humans caught up in this big economic and ecological mess does not cause anxiety, it is just one of the feautures of a bigger picture which ultimately is quite positive for the living things (humans included) which inhabit this blue marble. The growth, rapacious devouring of the world, and finally violent collapse and convulsions of death of an industrial civilization are merely an uncommon and particularly dangerous phenomenon- like standing next to a volcano or a supernova - fascinating and destructive and even creative at the same time - if it happens in your neighborhood it probably kills you and the best thing for those around is for it to be done and over with quickly. I'm going to give it my best try to make it through the bottleneck and teach my kids whatever i can about how to live in the world as we find it on the other side of the process.
and to smile whenever i see a leaf poking through a crack in the concrete.

If i was fretting about how i was going to be able to drive a car or have mobile phones and microwave dinners
and machines or cheap labor cook and clean and do shit-jobs for me, if i was trying to keep a bunch of shiny
toys and an obsolete mentality, then i think i would be freaking out about what the hell is happening to the world
i knew... but i'm not fretting about those things.

A lot of people I know are aware of whats going on but find it too depressing or daunting to think about, and
go back to their daily lives, watching tv and going shopping and whatever. The magnitude of change overwhelms
them and they just dont want to think about it, and often, they are reluctant to let go of things or ways of
life which we are going to lose willing or not. Some of those people will manage to let go when they really need to,
most of them won't, and will definitely not make it through the bottleneck.. and all the clueless folks with their
heads totally in the sand (or in disneyland) haven't got a chance. knowing how few have any chance, and having a
sense of what's really important and what can be let go.. it's a lot of hard work, but it is not cause for
anxiety.

1) Acceptance of possibly very adverse future scenario's. Also: being as prepared as I can be to meet any challenges for me and my loved ones, both mentally and in the area of tools and supplies.

2) Gathering knowledge, working on skills and pondering possible international, national and local scenario's. Having a full pantry is always a good idea, too.

3) Mika - Relax

And: Three cheers for the TOD-tribe!

It will not be all bad to disturb the emotional, pain/pleasure equilibrium we have in our lives. Most of us exist along a baseline that leaves us neither too comfortable nor too uncomfortable, too happy or too sad. We are more or less zombiefied.

If conditions make us dip well below the baseline, then we have the potential to burst above the baseline. Instead of a straight-line existence, we may have an intensely wavy existence where we have more and deeper lows below the baseline, but also more and higher highs above the baseline.

You will never appreciate a meal more than when you are starving. You will never appreciate a fire more than when you are freezing. You will never appreciate a gift more than when you are impoverished. People often enjoy their lives more when the dead calm equilibrium of their lives is disturbed.

There you are sitting on the baseline looking at what lies below, careful not to tumble off and be immersed in the imagined misery and pain. Sitting by the side of the pool is no way to live a life. Jump in and feel the cold, the rush of excitement and then climb out and bask in the sun. Don't sit on the baseline worrying about what lies below because you need what lies below to feel what is above.

1) action

2) i don't know how to answer this.

3) glenn gould - the goldberg variations - js bach (somehow it's comforting knowing that gould was on the crazy end of the continuum)

1)How do you cope with anxiety in general?

I plant a tree, or walk the dog, or paddle a canoe. Activity often helps, especially after a couple of hours browsing the web.

2)How are you preparing mentally for when TSHTF? Is this more important than having a year’s supply of freeze dried food in the basement?

I've always been someone who tolerates stress well, and generally my mind turns to problem-solving, after a brief spell of anxiety. While lots of food stores may give one comfort, I think the solution is to develop the tolerances that might serve one in the future.

For example : if the power goes out, one can spend a lot of energy gnashing teeth and yelling, or one can just go and fetch the candles.

I rather think industrial society has a particularly low tolerance to outages of all kinds. We are rather prone to self-aggrandisement. Life can be viewed as being about small things - that may be a lot healthier.

3)What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

I think humor is important. When I lived in the UK, Spike Milligan was a pretty popular comedian. He had his own dark days, battling bi-polar disorder, but yet managed to inject a lot of humor into everyday life. He was able to find humor in everything from WW2 to mindless consumerism to his own illness.

I think one has to be able to laugh at the small things.

One example of his poems:-

"Plastic Woman" (1972)

What are you saying
Supermarket shopping lady
in the scarlet telephone box
Lady with a shopping bag
Full of labelled pollution with secret codes
What are you saying ?
Is this your dream booth?
Are you telling some plastic operator
You are Princess Grace
And can he put you through
to Buckingham Palace ?
Two decimal pence
Is very little to pay for a dream in Catford
If only the label on the door didn't say
"Out of Order"

From a book called "Small Dreams of a Scorpion".

PostScript : Furthering my thoughts on #2 :-

One has to have a Plan "B" for after the dehydrated food in the basement is consumed. As I've probably said before, Peak Oil is a continuum rather than a single event. Stored foods are a great way to deal with a single event, such as an immediate shortage, but a plan has to be made to deal with getting food in a continuum. i.e. one's personal support systems need to be redeveloped and reorganized.

In other words, I find the idea of creating a homestead out in the middle of nowhere with a basement full of canned beans a poor adaptive strategy, long-term. There are better, but, possibly, less intuitive, strategies, such as moving closer together to reduce the transport component required for daily activities such as getting to work and procuring food.

Man discovered fossil fuels.

This allowed an incredible increase an the rate and magnitude of population.

That in turn caused an massive conversion of resources (including fossil fuels) into waste

In using those fuels we have changed the climate, destroyed ecosystems and species at an unprecedented rate.

The human population must reduce to whatever the earth can support (Darwin's Dog thinks this is zero), not just due to peak oil.

The social consequences of this are economic and political disruptions and the end of the industrial empire, but the environmental and climate issues are the real problems.

What is worse for the future of mankind than peak oil? Not having peak oil.

This is our lot - we've lived through the most prosperous time in human history, most of us in the most prosperous places, and now we will see the beginnings of great change. But there is life to live still, even if hardship is coming too. What is coming cannot and will not be planned or controlled - that doesn't mean that you should not try to do what you believe is best, but for the most part we are passengers on this trip. Do your best, follow your own path, live your life.

The thought that keeps coming back to me is the "message" from my two great great grandfathers. I am fortunate in that I live in a house with antiques collected by my parents and grand parents. Included in the collection are three pieces of furniture; a grandfather clock, a rocking chair and an end table made by my two great, great grandfathers. These three pieces of furniture are beautiful (one is dated 1856). They were made by two men with intelligence, talent and sophisticated sensibilities. Yet neither of these two men ever even saw a car; let alone owned one, drove one or even rode in one. Neither one of these two men ever switched on an electric light.

There is a world beyond the "industrial world" and it can be a beautiful and sophisticated place. That is the message my grand parents have offered me.

A nice notion for a midweek campfire. I'm posting this in aftermath of a car-impact concussion when I shouldn't be allowed to run loose; but that only goes to show that what you may worry about won't be what gets you anyway.

So my opinion:

Anxiety over real things isn't a bug, it's a feature.

It should be treasured and used in self-motivation, so we don't sit on the sidelines while a world is lost. Nothing is easier or less worthy than deciding nothing can be done.

Oblivion will find each of us individually soon enough; before then we should probably seek to be very good at playing the cards we're dealt. Embrace love and humor, abandon personal fear & possessiveness, accept our approaching personal death each day knowing we wouldn't be here at all without it. Strive to be a success by our own personal standards, and genuinely like and respect who we are.

Come to recognize our evolved delusions and avoid the addictions which cloud understanding and clarity of thought, be they drugs, tv, dogma, groupthink or personal rationalization.

Make music when events permit, never have sex with anyone who isn't laughing, learn something everyday and teach something everyday.

And above all, engage the world.

1)How do you cope with anxiety in general?

I don't. I'm a total basket case these days. But a functional one (aka, cleverly disguised as a responsible adult).

2)How are you preparing mentally for when TSHTF? Is this more important than having a year’s supply of freeze dried food in the basement?

I'm not. I've paid down debt, but have too much left to go. I work 12-hour days so no time to learn new skills. I'm screwed.

3)What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

None come readily to mind.

The richer countries--particularly the United States--have two big cushions that will make the energy transistion a bit smoother.

First is that fact that the poorer countries will take the brunt of the price increases and shortages because we can still outbid them. This already started in 2008.

The second is that we waste a tremendous amount of energy. In the U.S. more than half of all the energy we create is wasted. We can save a huge amount of energy, without waiting for new technologies, just by being more efficient and downsizing our apetitites. Just one example--cogeneration doubles the efficiency of electric production plants. There's plenty of other ways to save too, if we really want to.

Of course there's also the horrendous financial situation we're in.

I haven't got an easy answer for that one .....

My de-stressor and greatest stressor is my son. He's amazing, but his future is dark, at best.

I de-stress by doing something. PRIDe, the Permaculture and Resilience Initiative of Detroit, will be officially established soon.

Cheers

1)How do you cope with anxiety in general?

Many years ago, I read something about the fable of "Pandora's Box" - basically setting out how 'hope' was not a good thing at all - but rather something of a trap. Conciously putting that into effect - avoiding hope - consciously pulling myself up whenever I hear myself thinking 'I hope' and simply accepting that my hoping will change nothing, and is certainly not required to drive my choices, I have suffered very little from 'anxiety' about the future.

Rather, in the absence of hope, the future is something like an interactive novel unfolding page by page - knowing, for example, whether my favourite characters survive would make it less enjoyable - and if they don't, being dissapointed through hope serves no purpose in maximizing my enjoyment of the novel of life.

2)How are you preparing mentally for when TSHTF? Is this more important than having a year’s supply of freeze dried food in the basement?

See above - life is a journey - TSHTF = exciting chapters, they may well be very disturbing and/or upsetting*. Eliminate hope, and along with it hopelessness, and revel in the excitement of not knowing what will come on the next page.

3)What is one song/poem/story that can offer a moment of peace in this crazy world to you?

There are many - but it is perhaps equally important to strive for continuous internal peace amongst the craziness, as find way to temporarily escape from it?

Here, via Wikipedia, is what Nietzsche had to say about Pandora's gift

"Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment."

*I should note that I am not a parent

1) about reducing anxiety: I do some sports, running, cycling, swimming, even if you don't feel like it, it always makes you feel better. And I like to read and learn about the wisdom-traditions of the world, the perennial philosophy, getting to understand our place in the big picture, both on a material/scientific level and spiritually.

2) I think when you have a stable personality, are a righteous person and have (some) wisdom about life, one is mentally prepared for troubled times.
If tshtf, I basically will remain the same person. There can be great turmoil outside, but inside there is a place where you can remain your calm self.
However I am glad that I have already had the opportunity to comfortabally evolve to the person that I am.

3) Music is a great comfort to me (still love Dire Straits), and I somtimes enjoy reading somthing "out of the ordinary" like this:
http://tomkenyon.com/winds-of-change

cheers!

Preparing mentally: I remember a colleague who talked about making people confident cyclists. I reckoned that more to the point was making competent cyclists. Confidence comes naturally with competence, not the other way round. Work out what you need to do to become competent. In my case it initially involved studying the realities of energy decline, and that involved coming here to annoy Nate and hopefully a few others.

I think another thing in preparing mentally is that I have had the ?bad/good? fortune to have lived through many years of personal adversity. I see a lot of involuntary adversity in the coming years and I don't think there's any way of deliberatly preparing for it that compares with such experience which no-one chooses deliberately or wisely. I mean something much more oppressive than any voluntarily-imposed hardships.

Dealing with anxiety: Rather passé for me. Various technologies which I'll be glad to discuss when you join the energyark group(s).

Song/poem/story for calm: More like in my case to stir to life. Beethoven 3 at correct fast speed (Norrington). Schumann 2, Bruckner 6, or more calm-ish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t22x6OZmBiM&feature=related
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG_lkbv_ik8 ..etc.
Or to resurrect from coma:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWBAWJ0IPy0

I have three comments on this:

1) I find it ironic that Nate's current regimen for dealing with the upcoming doom, would have likely prevented peak oil. People working and cycling to get around instead of living as SUV-driving hedonists in debt up to their eyeballs could have made a huge impact on resource depletion.

2) I have a very intimate knowledge of Biblical scriptures, and I will admit that there are many feel-good scriptures. Unfortunately, I think that the average person picks only the parts that reinforce their behaviour such that they could kill, steal, and commit all the adultery they want and still feel good about it. Obviously, the poor guy who lives a very humble life finds a great deal of comfort in scriptures, but you don't really need scriptures to feel good about living a peaceful, simple, and caring life. Kindness should be its own reward; if it is not, then you probably want something to make you feel good about behaving badly.

3) As a scientist, it is upsetting to know the future sometimes. However, it is more upsetting to me that many scientists (especially students in college) do not accept the future that is coming. Many people believe that education and technology will fix society, or if we just legallized x, y, or z that all our problems would go away. They do not understand that often a solution just leads to more problems. Personally, I find comfort in the fact that sometimes less is more and that you just have to play the game of life. Our purpose is to live, not necessarily to question why unless we know that it leads to problems that we can completely solve.

Didn't Dan Fogleburg (sp?) write
"there's a place in the world for Chicken Little,
There's a future that only she can know".

Is it better to keep my kid's head out of the sand or give them a philisophical way out? Better to teach them how to think or what to think?