Boots and Roots

This is it! The final week of our 10-week series! And this week, we talk about entertainment! If the power goes out for an extended amount of time, and you are stranded at home, I have already taught you how to stay warm, hydrated, and full. But at some point, you’re going to get just plain bored. Or, get so wrapped around the axles over your situation that you get cross with everyone around you. While that’s a natural response, someone, at some point, has to flip the script, and remember you are all in this together. Might as well make it an adventure!

So, what to do, what to do, what to do……. You can only nap or sleep for so long before even THAT gets boring!! And, if you have little people, they’re not going to let you sleep anyway! 

I’m working on reading a book called AntiFragile by Nicolas Nassim Taleb. In it, he talks about fragile vs. antifragile. The concept of antifragility isn’t that being antifragile means a person, or a system, is unbreakable, or harder to break, than a fragile person or system–but that it actually becomes stronger in the face of adversity, disorder, and chaos. He gives a myriad of examples, including soccer moms (which naturally I found amusing, since that’s basically what I wanted to be when I grew up!), and how interventions and attempts to prevent people and systems from breaking actually have the opposite intended effect. Monkeying with the economy, for example, through “quantitative easing” and raising and lowering interest rates to prevent inflation actually makes the economic system more fragile and prone to even greater disorder than just letting the free market system do its “thang”. We’ve seen that time and time again. We all know that printing money left and right, and jacking with interest rates does nothing but delay the inevitable, and make things so much worse in the long run. And the short run–just look at the levels of inflation we’ve seen during just the last 3 years!! Letting the free market reign would create and allow for an antifragile system–one that actually benefits from the chaos and disorder, and becomes stronger as a result of these events, not in spite of them. The same goes for people. People who not only survive unexpected events, but thrive on them, and become stronger as a direct result, are considered to be antifragile.

What does all of this have to do with entertainment? Well, when you’re bored, or you’re ready to tune out for the evening, what do you have to entertain you? What do you do with your spare time? Scroll through your phone? Watch Netflix? There is nothing wrong with these things, to say the least. Personally, right now, my husband and I are binge-watching The Good Doctor, while I simultaneously scroll through Pinterest, or browse through old The Stockman Grass Farmer articles or something. But to become stronger in the face of disorder–to become antifragile–you need to have some tools in your toolbelt, a dose of creativity and ingenuity, and a healthy sense of humor!

Take a look around your house. What do you have to entertain you and your family if things go sideways? Do you have s’mores ingredients on hand to go along with that roaring fire in the fireplace (or little fire on the gas stove)? If not, you should totally get s’mores stuff to keep on hand. Just saying!! How about playing cards, Uno cards, or other card games? I recently discovered Phase 10, and it was pretty awesome! 

What about board games? We love checkers, chess, Stratego, and Jenga. Of course, the kids love games in general. Me? Not so much. But I’ll play the above ones all day. 

Do you have any books lying around? Power outages–during the daytime, at least–are the perfect opportunity to snuggle up on the couch and read to your kids. Whether you read to learn a new skill, or read for pleasure–or even just to pass the time–your synapses will thank you!

Charades and Pictionary are always good choices! So are puzzles!

We have the cards only, and I think part of the game board (no instructions, naturally) to a game called “The Worst Case Scenario: Survival” game. I actually keep it in my car! We just read the questions off the card, and see who can guess the answers. It’s a good–and mildly practical way to pass the time!

If you are bored with books and games, there are always skills and crafts like whittling, knitting, crocheting, making friendship bracelets, cross-stitch, learning how to tie different knots, sharpen your kitchen knives, or just general house-cleaning. No electricity? No fire, or your firewood is running low? May as well sweep, mop, heat up water to do some dishes (assuming you have enough water), clean some windows, reorganize, or take care of whatever else you’ve been putting off! The sky is the limit–and necessity is the mother of invention. Since you have nothing else to do but focus on making the most of a crisis situation, let your mind run wild, and see what fun, creative things you come up with to pass the time.

This is all, really, common sense–stuff that you would totally think of all by yourself in the middle of a power outage. But the reason I wanted to make sure to address it is, I don’t want you, in the middle of a situation, to be stuck thinking “man, if only I’d thought of [this] earlier, I could have gone ahead and had [s’mores, Uno cards, bought that book on how to whittle, bought that book I’ve been dying to read, rather than just downloading it on Audible–insert whatever you want here].” This way, you have basically a list of ideas to choose from to make sure you have “crisis entertainment” items on hand when you need it. I want y’all to thrive when faced with a crisis–not just survive. THAT has been the heart behind this whole series. You could eat cold canned soup. I’m living proof!! OR, you can take steps now to know how to build a fire, or have a jar of homemade and home-canned soup at the ready for such a time as this. You can shiver under your bed covers, OR you can pitch a tent or build a blanket fort in the living room, and be much toastier. You can stress out about not having enough water to cook with, OR you can make sure you store rainwater, or hit up the grocery store before they sell out. You can stare at the walls, frustrated over the lack of WiFi, and bored with playing charades, OR you can read a book or organize or play poker or whatever. 

Life is what you make it. Joy is a choice. Refuse to be a victim. Grab the bull by the horns and you tell it what to do. Do hard things. The easy way is BORING and is complete drudgery. When life hands you lemons, make margaritas! Bloom where you’re planted. Pick your analogy and run with it! Just DO something, even if you do it wrong at first. You can’t grow unless you’re first planted in the dark. So, GROW!!