Relationship is Preparedness

Apology for missing the meeting

First, I'm sorry for not being in touch before what was supposed to be the next meeting of the Preparedness Support Group. I know that regular meetings are an important part of online community, so that was a mistake! I'll do better. Let's meet this Saturday, 6th December. (See below for details.)

Extinction Rebellion blew my mind

The reason I lost my composure is that Extinction Rebellion issued a preparedness guide, and this fact blew my mind. The document itself is not that extraordinary, but the fact of its existence is incredibly significant, and has forced me to reevaluate my entire approach to "preparedness."

They call it "XReadiness," and you can get it here.

Why is this so important? Two reasons:

1. It shows we're on the right track: If Extinction Rebellion, the world-renowned, frontier-busting, climate-protest group is talking about getting ready to face disaster, then our new interest in emergency preparedness is well-timed. We now know collapse-aware groups in four countries who have turned their attention to being ready for disaster: Kollapscamp, in Germany; Adaptation Radicale, in France; Deep Adaptation - Hungary, in Hungary; and now XR, in the U.K. Not to mention the governments who have recently issued updated preparedness guides: Sweden, Norway, Finland, and just a few days ago, France. It's a trend.
2. The "capabilities" or "resources" side of what we call "preparedness" is now handled! If you want to know what kind of supplies, equipment, and skills you need at home, read XReadiness, or any of the more-or-less official guides that we listed in this post, or Google it. We don't need to re-invent the basics! We don't need to compile a new library or a resource guide. If a group with the prestige and expertise of XR has weighed in, I consider the matter closed.

So where does that leave us?

The Hard Part: Relationship is Preparedness

Relationship as part of preparedness is given second shrift, even among the enlightened. The XReadiness guide, though it is more "collapse aware" than any other guide I've seen, still adopts the classic formula: "Here are the things you need to survive this or that particular disaster. Oh, and by the way, you'll be better off if you know your neighbors." The universal attitude is "resources first, relationships later."

As difficult as it is to face it, I don't think we can get away with that. I think we need to do the hard part first. We need to look at what relationship means, theoretically and practically, and pursue it relentlessly no matter what the cost.

Why? Because the breakdown of relationship is the original sin that has landed us in the soup of collapse to begin with. Our separation from the Earth, from other people, and from the divine source of being (whatever you think that may be) is what has brought us to the brink of apocalypse. If we want to address that primal rift in the fabric of being, we're not going to do it with canned food and a hand-cranked radio!

That's not to say we shouldn't have supplies in our house and know what to do when the power goes out. Of course we should, and now there is a complete set of references to let us know what to do in that regard.

But that's the easy part.

The hard part is facing the human beings that you drift by every day on your street or in your building, learning their names, and finding a way to talk to them. To do that is a spiritually revolutionary act, with enormous consequences! It is the center and core of our mission in the world, and if we are serious about our response to collapse, we must do it.

Survey says... Relationship is key.

[* I must add another apology. (3 December.) I used AI to summarize the results of the survey, contrary to the consensus not to use AI in the proceedings of this group. I simply didn't think about it, and so ended up violating the group agreement. I'm sorry! I'm surely thinking about it now, and I won't do it again.]

You already know this, and you told us so in the survey that Tasha set up for us. The overwhelming theme in the responses was "community isolation." Almost everyone mentioned the "lack of supportive in-person/collapse-aware community" as their principle obstacle to preparedness.

Yes, people mentioned specific threats (the normal things: lack of food, water, power, medicine, and personal safety), and yes people want knowledge-based resources, but the general theme is how cut off we are from anyone with whom we can face our problems together.

Overall pattern: The community faces fragmentation and isolation, with people feeling they lack both practical survival skills and collapse-aware peer support. Physical preparedness challenges are compounded by the emotional weight of preparing alone.

Next Meeting of the Preparedness Support Group

So, therefore, the next meeting of the Preparedness Support Group will be an open discussion about the nature of relationship and how we can build relationships in our real-world lives. I know that's not the whole discussion with regard to preparedness, but it is the beginning of the discussion!

Saturday, 6 December 2025

• Meeting ID: 812 0888 4464
• Passcode: 049722
• This is the Zoom link.
• Click for the time in your zone.

Hope to see you there!

❤️ David B.

P.S. The quotes in the section above about the survey results are from a summary by Claude.ai. Yes, I'm using AI, about which more later. (Except, I won't use AI for anything regarding this group. See the apology, above.)