To Live & Die in Interesting Times

A guide to dealing with the chaos of the 2020s; community, food security, practical skills and
mental health during The Great Depression Part Deux, the threat of war, and the climate crisis.

“May you live in interesting times.”

This apocryphal, Chinese curse has made its rounds in our current age, as though it’s undoubtedly
been cast on us. A list of each ‘interesting’ event or circumstance we find ourselves in would be
exhaustive and exhausting, and therefore counterintuitive when there is new life to breathe in; new
purpose to take on.
No, my goal is not to make a list of everything wrong with the world today. This is not another
doomscroll circus. My goal is to drum up solid actions, one by one and little by little, and to expose the
opportunities that are buried in these interesting times. I should disclaim here that I am not a guru,
preacher, cult leader, or expert, nor is this financial advice, and nothing I could possibly suggest is a real
solution to the deeply enmeshed global crises we’re living through, they are purely small-scale measures
we can take to be better off as individuals, families and communities during these interesting times. I’ve
split my suggestions into five sections:
1. Community Is Fuckin’ Important
2. Food and Water Security
3. Practical Skills and Tools
4. Mental Well-Being
5. Nomadic Living and the Silk Road

Keep in mind that this list is not meant to overwhelm you, or to make you feel like you’re not
doing enough. Nobody can do everything listed here - lord knows I don’t - and the best thing you can do
is what is within your own scope, even if that’s just simply taking care of your own mental and physical
health to the best of your current ability and being kind to the people around you. If you can take on even
just one or two of these suggestions, the benefit may be extraordinary.

Community Is Fuckin’ Important

Well, it is! In the event of any sort of disaster, your family and community will likely be where
your strength comes from, and if you do not have a community it is likely that you will be thrust into a
makeshift version of one via necessity. It may be beneficial for you to start forming connections with
various people that are near to you now while you can still choose to do so. If you live in an apartment,
consider becoming actual friends with some other people in your building. This doesn’t mean to go
around saying “hello, I would like to start a community with you and all the strangers in this building”,
no, you’re better off to just make small connections with them. Give people a knock and some homemade
cookies and let them know if they need anything that they are welcome to give you a knock. If you live in
a neighborhood you can do the same thing.
 In a situation where food becomes incredibly expensive or difficult to obtain, a group of people
who trust and care about each other will have much more to offer the group as a whole. Someone will
have loads of flour, someone else will know how to bake bread with it. Someone will have a whole bunch
of extra eggs that will go bad if they don’t share. Someone will know how to identify wild edibles, and
someone else will know how to process and cook them. Someone will know how to grow a garden, while
someone else will be able-bodied enough to tend to it. If a small group of people in a neighborhood
decide to utilize just one house’s yard fully as a permaculture/hydroponic garden, and another group of
people utilized another house’s yard to raise chickens, ducks, turkeys, and/or goats, they might be able to
supply produce, dairy, and meat for the entire neighborhood. Another group of people can make soaps
and sew clothing, another can cook and preserve food, another can forage and hunt, another can build
things and do regular maintenance for the neighborhood, and (barring a lack of the right skills,
knowledge, and training) another can provide medical care. This as an ideal, and often considered to be a
utopian dream, but really, what is making it such an impossibility? Fear of communism? Please.
This kind of agrarian economy can combat inflation and rising prices of goods, too. Instead of
working longer hours and padding corporate bank accounts, or getting a second job, or starting a side
hustle in order to meet the rising costs, I propose we find every little way possible to own the means of
production ourselves. Very little money would have to be spent on high-priced stores or forced out of us
by plutocratic monopolies if we had communities that produce almost all the food and goods for those
communities. Of course, it will not be easy to form these types of communities; it will require great
willingness to change and give up or limit certain amenities. People cannot be coerced into this change,
they have to choose it themselves, and it might be considered a nightmare to work out the logistics how
these communities would operate. At this point, simple conversations and small steps will go a long way;
a trade of homemade goods between friends, surplus from someone’s garden passed out to neighbors, a
skill taught in return for a skill taught.
A community benefits from itself. Many heads being put together to solve problems is better than
one, many hands are able to work faster and more efficient than two. Many different lifestyles and
pockets of knowledge are more collectively beneficial than only your own. It’s not at all a stretch to say
that the lone wolf will not make it very far during a crisis. Turn your neighbors into friends while still in
relative peacetime. Plan with your family and friends to maintain continuity. If your family or
neighborhood is already tight-knit, talk with them, maybe assign everyone a skill to learn or a task to
focus on. Even if no catastrophic event occurs, you will still be better off than you were before by
building bridges and coming together with the people around you. It is not always an easy thing to
connect with strangers or build deeper connections with acquaintances, so I’ve made a small list of
possibilities to help bridge that gap.

 START A MILITIA (nah really though, please don’t start a militia!)

 Find a community garden and contribute to it. Not only will this help with food security, but it is also
an opportunity to find like-minded people and do something productive with them. If you are unable
to find a community garden, try starting one wherever you can.
 If you are starting to grow food yourself, try inviting some of your friends or relatives to join you one
day. They may not be interested, but if they are it will go a long way towards beginning a strong
community.
 Start local groups on social media that pertain to whatever your interests/ideas are. If you want to
form a kind of mutual assistance group, start a social media group for it and invite all your friends,
then tell your friends to invite all their friends. From there, you can form meetups and brainstorm
ideas with like-minded people and even get some non-like-minded people to take interest.
 Knock on your neighbors doors, wear a mask, give them something homemade, awkwardly introduce
yourself and tell them that if they need anything they are welcome to come to you. In an age where
isolation seems like the normality, it will break down barriers to be face to face and candid with the
people around you.
 Talk to your actual friends about the issues going on in the world and tell them you want to do
something about it. Often times our friends are just casually around, but if you make the move to say
you want to be of mutual assistance to others, it might inspire them to want to do the same.
Here is another resource to help you start a mutual aid group
Again, it is not necessarily an easy thing to just form a community out of thin air. Not everyone
will be interested and it’s not always simple to put yourself out there like that. But it will be worth the try,
it will be worth it to build something stronger than just yourself as an individual. This also doesn’t mean
you have to be so heavily involved in the lives of the people around you or start a cult; it is perfectly
plausible to maintain privacy and a strong community at the same time.

I’d like to open these next two sections with a written quote from Paul Zamora, the last great
Wyoming fur trapper, a brilliant artist and philosopher, and a personal friend of mine.
“Unpreparedness shall be the downfall of all those that inhabit areas and regions prone to high winds,
low valleys, heavy snows, wildfires, drought, tornados, earthquakes, small grocery stores, large religious
groups, hurricanes, broken cigarette machines, totalitarianism, and any other forms of excessive fear and
ignorance.” - Paul Zamora

Food and Water Security

Regardless of the threat of war, natural disaster, or mass power outage, food prices are rising. You
don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you do not have enough money to eat well, and you don’t
want to rely solely on the provenly unstable supply chain. In other words, don’t keep all your eggs in one
basket. Consider all your options and have a backup stash in case anything goes southerly.

Oh Shit Food

Ever since I was young, my mama always kept a large bin full of non-perishables, that she called
the “Oh Shit Food” bin, which has stuck with me for my whole life. Throughout my adulthood I’ve also
kept a bin of Oh Shit Food with me in all my living spaces and during all my travels; it’s come in handy
many, many times.
 Be sure to choose items that you already eat on a regular basis, because absolutely no one wants to
eat tinned potatoes, and also remember to rotate your stock; eat the items that are closest to expiration
first. I have provided a list of common, well-rounded, nutritious, and relatively inexpensive non-
perishables to consider when creating your stock of Oh Shit Food. Keep in mind, a stock of Oh Shit Food
does not need to be thousands of dollars and years worth of food stashed away in a basement, you can
and should start with even just $25-$50 worth. Try buying just one extra item each time you go to the
grocery store for other things.

Tried & True Silk Road Gourmet Oh Shit Foodstuffs

 Grains: rice, pasta, oatmeal, flour, quinoa, farrow, etc.

 Canned vegetables: green beans, peas & carrots, corn, asparagus, beets, artichoke hearts, etc. Keep
in mind canned vegetables are not great, but they’re better than nothing.
 Canned fruit: peaches, pineapple, pears, mandarin oranges, tomatoes, olives, mixed fruit cocktail,
etc.
 Beans. Canned beans, dry beans, black beans, pinto beans, chili beans, chickpeas. Beans are the
savior of the world.
 Pickles and other pickled vegetables: pickled peppers, pickled brussels sprouts, etc.
 Sauces: red pasta sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, etc.
 Oil and vinegar
 Salt, pepper, herbs, spices: garlic and onion powder, chili powder, crushed red pepper, cumin,
cayenne pepper, curry powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, dried basil, dried thyme, dried
oregano, rosemary. You don’t want to be eating bland during a crisis. Shit’s already bad enough.
 Broth, stock, and bouillon
 Dried fruit and nuts
 Granola bars or protein bars
 Snacks: crackers, chips, popcorn, beef jerky, etc.
 Ramen cups and packets
 Peanut butter
 Jams and jellies
 Honey and sugar
 Coffee and tea
 Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) are the absolute best canned food ever. They’re super nutritious and
filling and taste wonderful.
 If applicable, extra pet food
 If applicable, extra baby food/baby formula
 MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A MANUAL CAN OPENER, YOU FOOL

Of course, Oh Shit Food is going to run out eventually, and the best way to make sure that you can
stay fed is to grow and forage for your own food!
The Victory Garden, Guerilla Gardening, and Foraging

The term Victory Garden was coined during WWII. Victory gardens were planted in public and
private residences all over the US in order to ensure food supply for both civilians and troops, and
consisted of vegetables, grains, fruits, and herbs. Now is the time for us to start growing our own victory
gardens. While it’s not easy to start a backyard garden, there are countless free resources to learn, and
often times it just takes trial and error. I have linked a few great resources below:

How to Start a Backyard Garden Article

Epic Gardening Youtube Channel

Self Sufficient Me Youtube Channel

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (Book for Sale)

Remember, you can find gardening tools for free and cheap on places like Craigslist, so do not
feel as though you need to go broke in order to get the essential tools to start a garden. I even found most
of my indoor planters and containers in a grocery store dumpster of all places!
Guerilla gardening is the practice of finding unorthodox places to grow plants, such as indoors, in
window-wells, or in public parks, and is often considered illegal or illicit. I would still recommend
finding ways to do this if you have no other options, damn the man.
If you live in an apartment and do not have the backyard space, it is entirely possible to grow
some foods indoors in containers. All you will need is the right containers, the right lighting, the right
amount of water and drainage, and the space for it. Potatoes can grow in 5-gallon food grade buckets, for
example. Green onions can be propagated in glasses of water then easily transplanted to pots. If you do
not have sufficient natural lighting, you can purchase grow lights for relatively cheap that will aid in the
growing process. I’ve been taught that indoor plants respond very well to lighting that rests on either side
of the color spectrum (red and blue). Two grow lights (one that is firmly red and one that is firmly blue)
should be sufficient enough to help your indoor plants grow. The only other things you’ll need are
containers with drainage holes and drip trays, potting soil and fertilizer.

Here are some great options for indoor food growth:

 Potatoes
 Tomatoes
 Carrots
 Peppers
 Herbs
 Greens
 Microgreens
 Green onions

How to Grow Vegetables Indoors (Easy Beginner's Guide)

Foraging
Foraging is one of the most beautiful acts that a human can partake in in the modern world.
Whether it’s common berries like blackberries and raspberries, or harder to find roots and chutes, being
able to properly identify and utilize wild edible plants can be beneficial in more ways than just food
security. Foraging is the opportunity to reconnect with nature, to exercise your body and stimulate your
mind, as well as taste something new and different. There are hundreds and hundreds of wild plants that
can either be eaten as is, or processed and cooked to become edible and delicious.
(DISCLAIMER: Absolutely do not consume any plant that you are not 100% positive you can
identify. There are many edible plants that have near-identical poisonous cousins, and if you are not
entirely sure, you are better off starving than dead. Cross reference all your identifications with multiple
sources and ask some online forums as well. Also, remember that mushrooms and fungus are a whole
different class than roots and plants. Basically every single mushroom has a poisonous identical twin; do
not forage for mushrooms unless you are a pro.)
Here’s an easy one that is not region-specific: dandelions grow abundantly, and nearly everywhere
in the US. The roots, flowers, and leaves can be turned into tea, and the greens alone can be cooked with
spices, vinegars and oils like any other green to become edible and tasty. That is, of course, if you’re
averse to just popping those beautiful yellow flowers directly in your mouth right when you pick them
(they are bitter, I wouldn’t recommend this, but you can). Be sure to clean your dandelions first; I suggest
soaking them in apple cider vinegar and rinsing afterward. Similarly, oak trees grow everywhere in the
US and acorns can be easily turned into nutritious and edible food, as long as you boil them a few times
to get rid of the bitter tannins.
Aside from the countless available books on finding and identifying wild edibles, there are phone
apps that allow you to take a picture of a plant and identify and tell you if it is edible or not. There are
some apps (like Falling Fruit) that have already mapped out edible plants in your area that you can refer
to. Don’t be afraid to get a little bit grimy and go out into the woods to find some food. The grocery store
is not always essential, and we were put on a planet full of abundance.
How To Get Started Foraging (Youtube)

Cooking and Preserving

Remember, you will need the tools and basic skills to cook no matter the situation. Consider
purchasing a small one-burner or two-burner propane stove and some backup cannisters of propane. An
outdoor propane or charcoal grill is a good option as well, just be sure to top off your propane. Also,
consider learning how to build, maintain, and contain a small cooking fire in your backyard. If you are not
culinary-minded, it might be a good time to start practicing some basic cooking skills like boiling pasta,
chopping and stir-frying vegetables, cooking dry beans and rice, eggs, potatoes, and other staples.
Learning how to preserve food is also a very strong skill to have in this day and age. Canning, pickling,
dehydrating, and freezing are all sufficient forms of food preservation. Invest in a pressure canner or use
the water bath method for canning higher acidic foods. Just be sure to do your research and strictly follow
preserving guidelines in order to avoid foodborne illnesses.
Water
As important, if not more so, than a steady source of food is a steady source of water. You will
need a few things in order to purify water
 The ability to boil it
 Cheesecloth to strain out solids and particulates
 Water filters such as the Sawyer, Berkey, or Lifestraw
 Iodine/water purification tablets
Remember that you will most likely need to use a few of the above methods at once in order to
ensure your water is safe to drink. Commit yourself to plenty of research before diving into the water
purification process blindly. Consider stocking a few backup jugs of drinking water with your Oh Shit
Food just in case. A good rule of thumb is that each person will use minimum one gallon of water per
day. Consider also building a rainwater collection system.
Other Tips for Food Security

 If you have the backyard space, consider keeping a passel of chickens. They are one of the more low-
maintenance farm animals and if you take care of them they will provide you with a near endless
amount of eggs. Remember to feed them plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and their eggs will taste
amazing. I even have a friend who has a chicken coop in their backyard in a large city, so this is not
limited to rural or suburban areas.
 Be very frugal, don’t spend money on anything that you do not consider essential. Compare unit
prices, check the clearance section, and learn how to get the most bang for your buck at the grocery
store (everything is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s).
 Try dumpster diving. There is an insane amount of quality food wasted and sent to the landfill. Many
grocery stores do not lock their dumpsters and you can find tons and tons of good food that would
otherwise be wasted. Be sure to stay safe, wear boots and gloves, avoid perishable foods like dairy
and meat, look up product recalls, and have an excuse at the ready in case you get caught...
 This may be an unorthodox suggestion, but try cooking or buying hot food for some of your
unhoused neighbors. The state does not care about them, and any help that you offer will come back
to you in some way.
Practical Skills and Tools
In this day and age, practicality is king. It is no longer pragmatic to chase dreams of being a
millionaire, or a popstar/famous rapper, or the next genius technological entrepreneur, in the same way
that it is no longer even plausible to go to college, find a well-paying office job, get married, buy a house,
have children, retire, and die happy. No, this is not the way anymore. We are far from normalcy and never
will have that again. We may just have to thrust ourselves into a form of survival mode in order to thrive.
More important than stocking up on beans and bullets is to have an array of skills that are
conducive to making a life for yourself regardless of your circumstances. These are not just disaster/crisis
skills; they are skills that will make you a more well-rounded person, and give you the opportunity to be a
net positive to yourself and the people around you.
 Remember, there are countless resources and opportunities to learn these skills. Do your research,
be creative and open to learning new things, and look to the world around you for help.
 Basic first aid: how to properly clean a wound, how to apply a tourniquet, how to support a sprain,
how to treat a burn, how to help someone having a seizure or heart attack. Almost every county of
every state has a free monthly basic first aid class, you need only to sign up and show up. (I am
not linking any Youtube videos because it is best to get professional advice for matters of first aid,
instead try googling first aid classes in your area)
 Basic vehicle maintenance: how to change a tire, change your oil, change your headlights
 How to bow hunt and fish, how to forage
 How to grow food
 How to cook/preserve food
 How to mend clothing
 How to make natural soaps and cleaners
 Basic self-defense
 How to exercise/stretch properly
 How to build things with your hands/use basic tools
 How to build a fire or make a Dakota Fire Hole
 How to read maps
Make sure you have some basic emergency gear as well, you never know when you’ll have a
power outage or a natural disaster hit your area. Do not be caught unprepared.
 Flashlight and extra batteries
 Lighters/matches
 Candles, flares
 N95 masks/dust masks
 Duct tape
 Pocket knife
 First aid kit: gauze pads, adhesive tape, bandages, antibiotic ointment and antiseptic wipes, splint.
 Thermal or wool blanket
 Whistle
 Hand-crank or battery powered radio
 Basic medications: ibuprofen, aspirin, cough medicine, decongestant, etc.
 Extra prescription medications (if applicable)
 Sanitation, personal hygiene, sundries: all purpose soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s cult soap),
hand sanitizer, wet wipes, toothbrush and toothpaste, petroleum jelly, bug spray, sunscreen,
feminine supplies, etc.
 Warm gear: blankets, coats, long underwear, gloves, hats, hand warmers

It will help you to keep at least a minimum amount of these essential items, including food, water,
personal documents, and cash in a single bin that you can easily grab, just in case you need to bug out or
evacuate your home.
 To conclude, we must understand that at this point, it isn’t about being a wacky doomsday
prepper. We live in a deeply entrenched risk society, and you are best served to be prepared for anything
that you possibly can be. Preparedness does not mean to sit in a bunker of hoarded goods while polishing
an AR-15 and reading the bible, it doesn’t mean to fall into fear traps, constantly look over your shoulder,
or go into a state of panic at every new headline, it is simply to protect yourself and your loved ones to the
best of your ability no matter the scenario you find yourself in. When you have your basic necessities
covered, it is much easier to thrive in this world. It is much easier to see the larger picture and find out
where you are best suited to focus your energies, where your passions lie, and what matters most to you.
My grand suggestion to the people of America and beyond, is that you ought to take on practical
skills as if they were your hobbies or passion projects. That is to say, don’t be burdened by the difficulty
in learning them; be in love with the fact that you get to learn them, and that you should learn them.
Become self-sufficient to the absolute best of your ability, rely on not a single outside source to provide
for you; no supply chain, no electric grid, no politician, no corporation, no employer, no proverbial
mother and father, no machine, no god. There is no one coming to save us, we have to save ourselves.

Mental Well-Being
If there’s one thing to note, and realize about yourself, it’s that we are actually quite sturdy,
durable, and stoic when it comes to matters of global collapse. Young people are made out to be too soft
and too comfort-oriented, but I think we’re handling the situation quite well. We have artists who are
focusing on their art, writers who are focusing on their writing, young people turning to their most
practical skills, learning to heal themselves from generational and circumstantial trauma. We’re adapting,
and we are finding ways to eke joy, understanding, and stability out of the chaos. Irony has been a crutch
for less-than-mentally-healthy leftist spaces, while individuals are becoming so fed up with the barrage of
bad news that they are seeking action to do different, be different, stabilize themselves, to not contribute
to the chaos. Neoliberal practices are being refuted by a desperate lunge toward our own humanity, an
unwillingness to be another commodity or exploited laborer. More and more people are allowing their
voices to be projected, rather than whispering into the void. In other words, we’re figuring things out.
That’s not to say it isn’t bleak, or that because we’re figuring things out that we’re happy, healthy,
well-adjusted, or that we even have the slightest clue in what to do about our situation, let alone the grand
scheme of the world. We are a test-tube babies of modernity, with no choice in matters that were decided
before our birth and hardly a choice in any future global decision. So where do we go from here?
Mental health is not to say that we should be well-adjusted. I believe that nobody is well-adjusted,
and if they are, they are sheltered or misunderstanding of the scope of the crises we’re living through.
Stability does not come through fomenting action against a common enemy (of which we have many, but
hardly any recourse against them). Mental well-being does not come from ignorance to, nor from over
saturation of crisis news. It comes from acknowledgement and a form of stoicism in the face of crisis. It
often comes from having a strong system of support, having good people in your life, being able to spend
time with them. It comes from love and support, being accepted, not individualism and isolation.
 It comes from seeing the people around you as just as stupid, ugly, burdened, traumatized, funny,
beautiful, interesting, and intelligent as you are, and interacting with them on a human level. We are not
going to come up with any sort of positive outcome if we simply search for the “other” to hate, or live in
fear of all other people and isolate ourselves from them. Well-being comes from community. It comes
from knowing that you are able to fill your pantry and pay your bills and still have enough leftover to
enjoy life. It comes from having some sort of purpose, and processing existence in a meaningful way,
even if that meaning differs from person to person, and even if you’re not entirely sure that your meaning
is all-inclusive. Sometimes it’s just your own interpretation that doesn’t need to be shared with anyone
else, so long as it does not harm anyone else. But to see all of this as entirely meaningless, whether it is or
isn’t, is to doom yourself to nihilism, and there is hardly anything productive or useful about nihilism. In
other words, to be mentally healthy, it is likely that you must have a clear-cut purpose in your life. People
who can only eat if they hunt and gather are less likely to be burdened by the anxiety of global conflict
and geopolitics. They have a purpose, and that is to find food. We must get our homes in order if we’re to
find any sort of stability in this world. That is why practicality and pragmatism matter so much.
But this is where our growth as human beings comes into play. It is quite clear that the way things
were before (i.e. “normalcy”) weren’t quite working for us, otherwise we wouldn’t be waist-deep in these
crises, we wouldn’t have such severely declining mental health in our country and beyond, we wouldn’t
have such a massive wealth-gap bordering on oligarchy, a morally and politically divided population
damn nearing civil war, nor would we have a long list of lies, false advertising, and straight up coercion
and manipulation spewed at us in our every day lives. We do not need any more “normalcy”. Normalcy is
actually quite abnormal and absurd, but it is normal, so we rarely questioned it. That is until now, where
everything, and I mean everything, seems to prompt the question: “What the hell is actually happening?”
And we have no answers, really. All we can do is deduce and react accordingly.
But that’s not say our only recourse is reactionary. We have the opportunity to form strong
communities, to become kinder and more caring, to become more stable, prepared, and grounded in our
every day lives regardless of what is going on the world. We have the opportunity to become genuinely
useful and supportive of each other, and this is the normalcy that I think we should be striving toward.
Do not feel as though you need to constantly be informed, or have an opinion on everything going
on in the world. Nothing is ever quite as serious as it seems, and much of this life is nothing more than a
long-winded cosmic joke. Sometimes you just need to take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, and
express yourself in whatever way you want to. In all the struggle and strife, don’t forget to brush your
teeth, take a bath, exercise a little, and eat something healthy. Make art, write songs and poetry, play
instruments, listen to your favorite music, read a book, work on your hobbies, meditate if that’s your
thing, get out in nature, spend time with your friends and family. These are the best ways to maintain your
mental health during these times.
Complexity is becoming a curse, and what more is there to life than simply being in love, having
friendships, eating good food, exploring the world and creating things? If you wish to maintain your
mental health, you will need to narrow down what is most important to you.
 Nomadic Living and the Silk Road
Choosing to live the grungy life of a nomad is actually a highly sophisticated choice in the current
climate, depending on your personal situation, and there is a reason so many people are turning to van-life
nowadays. It’s not just a bohemian artist fantasy though, the practicality of being able to move freely
should be clear.
In one way, it is easy to escape any difficult situation such as a natural disaster when all your
personal belongings are in one mobile place. In another way, it’s a chance to avoid soaring rent prices and
live without the confines of a regular job and set off to see the world. That’s not to say it’s any easier than
living in a house or apartment and working a 9-5. It’s just as difficult, only in different ways. Obviously
there are a lot of considerations to keep in mind, such as where to shower and use the bathroom, how to
cook and store food without a refrigerator and kitchen, how and where to sleep safely and comfortably,
how to make enough money on the road in order to purchase gas and necessities, but there are options for
all of these, and countless tried and true resources to help you figure out what setup and practices are best
for you. Nomadic living is another case of trial and error; getting out there to test the waters and identify
how to live based on your personal requirements. I would suggest that if you’re considering it, try a week-
long road trip first, get into the grit of it and see if you’re really cut out for living on the Road.
Nomadic living will harden you, make you resourceful and cunning. It will show you what is truly
important in your life and prevent you from falling into many material and consumerist traps. It gives you
a kind of freedom that cannot be found by staying in the same house, in the same town for all your life.
Mobility gives you an upper hand in case of any destructive event or evacuation scenario. You will not
need to scramble to pack your most important belongings and leave a city on crowded highways, you will
likely already have everything you need handy be able to be one of the first to evacuate.
One of the most difficult aspects of living on the Road is making enough money to get by, because
there is not the security of a full-time job to fall back on, but there are many options. I would not shy
away from doing gig work, freelancing, seasonal jobs, or starting some sort of online service, these are
ways to make money and still keep your mobility. If you are still living in one place and working a job
but preparing to begin a nomadic life, start saving up now. My suggestion would be to save up at least
three months of paychecks in order to ensure that you can get by while you transition into mobile work.
Many people who are considering living on the Road question how much money they actually need, and
will put off beginning their journey for fear of running out of money. But again, nomadic living makes
you very resourceful and thrusts you into situations where you have to figure it out quickly, so you’re
better off setting a launch date, and sticking to that date no matter how much money you have. I promise,
from my own many years of experience living on the Road and traveling the country, that you’ll figure it
out as you go.
Nomadic living is the ideal lifestyle during a worldwide climate crisis. You can much more
readily escape natural disasters, travel to where resources are plentiful, and make many helpful
connections along the way. Some very good friends of mine who have helped me in tight situations and
provided me with food and shelter during times of need are people that I’ve met in my travels.
 If you are considering this lifestyle, it is all the more reason to re-up your self-sufficiency skills.
Learn how to properly maintain your vehicle, how to cook for yourself, how to do basic first aid in case
emergency services are not readily accessible. Aside from the basics that everyone needs, I have provided
a list of items that I consider essential for nomadic living:
 Backup stash of motor oil and a filled 5-gallon gasoline can
 Two-burner Coleman stove and extra propane cannisters
 Dish tub for cleaning dishes
 Road atlas
 Road flares, jumper cables, tire pressure gauge
 Some basic camping supplies: tarp, tent, flashlight, lantern, ice chest, thermos, mess kit/cooking
supplies,
 First aid kit
 Pour-over coffee maker or French press
 Sleeping bag and wool blanket
 Strong boots

Nomadic living is not something to rush into or decide on a whim, it should be planned out and
prepared for. Take the time to research, observe how other nomads go about their daily lives, and do some
practice runs of sleeping in your vehicle to ensure that you are built for it. Despite having to forego
certain amenities and lacking many creature comforts, a nomadic lifestyle is both practical and thrilling
and should be taken very seriously as an option for those who wish to stay on their feet during crisis
times. You have my blessing to go this route, and the Road is waiting.
If you’ve read up to this point, thank you for lending me the space in your mind, and I sincerely
hope you have gained some sort of positive perspective or idea from this.

The Earth is begging us to live more simply, to cut down on our waste, to lean towards
pragmatism, to prepare accordingly, to be there for our loved ones and strangers alike. We are to a point
where industry, commodification, and the pursuit of wealth are no longer sustainable, no longer even
moral. It seems that even finding a job and going to work are frivolous acts, if that job is not of genuine
service to the people around us. We are in times where art should be for the sake of art, and down-to-earth
goals are far more meaningful than lofty ones. These days, the average person ought to be an insane
doomsday prepping maniac, honestly. But even if none of us are destined to survive, even if it all
eventually collapses, at least we can do something meaningful while we’re still here.
There is much more to discuss and plan for.