The Backup Key

During our recent trip, The Ravishing Mrs. TB asked a seemingly bizarre question:  "Do you know where the backup key to The Cabin is?"

As it turns out, I did happen to know - my father had told me earlier during the visit.  There is a two step process but yes, I said, I did know where the key was.

"Good" she replied.  "We might need to come up here.  The world is a mess."

My wife has never said such a think before in all our marriage.

I am as hard a Doomer as they come.  I have been seeing the end of everything - or at least the slow, gradual decline - for more years than I can count.  It is a combination of a rather pessimistic view of the world combined with a knowledge of how fragile a thing civilization really is.  But I have never expected to hear this from my wife.

There are a lot of practical outcomes of this in terms of preparation and lifestyle change of course, but that is not really where my thought immediately went on this.  In a way, it made me very sad.

We are in a transition phase - maybe longer than my lifetime to be sure, but a transition phase between what the world was and is to what the world is becoming.  And it strikes that if current events and ways of thinking and acting are any indication, it is not the sort of place that most people ever thought or imagined they would be.

A passing of innocence of sorts.

Which happens to all of us at some point, I suppose.  At that point, it is better to prepare for the worst and be surprised.

But always know where the backup key is.