Reading this post EMP novel I came across so many shocking
and horrifying things. I think that day 63 was the worst. I have never really
been hungry. I have never seen starvation well not unless I was watching late
night TV when Sally Struthers would plug away for The Christian Children’s Fund
in some far away land. I live in Oklahoma and we are only 80 years passed the
dust bowl. But in that time we have lost our comprehension of hunger. We don’t
remember the chronology of death in starvation. When Professor Matherson describes
the how and why parents were dying of starvation before their children, I was
shocked. My only other close calls with starvation, “The Long Winter” Laura Ingles Wilder, “The Grapes of Wrath” John Steinbeck and any number of World War Two
books, fiction and nonfiction, the starvation always went from children to
adults. The reason is that in those times starvation was known and a plan,
though unspoken, was known to all. Men first, then women, then the older
children. Babies died first. Our time of plenty we have no concept of how to preserve
through famine. I fully believe that that the parents who feed their kids
before themselves completely believed that what they were doing was the best
thing for their family, firmly believing help was on the way any day now.
I have been watching how my own family interacts. My children
eat off my plate daily. They literally take the food out of my mouth. It isn’t
any big deal right now because we have plenty to replace it. However in this scenario
it would be important to triage our calories. In my food storage I have extra
measuring devices because I can’t just scoop and pour foods like I do now
because if I am taking 10% too much then the food that I have carefully stored
will not last as long as I had planned. Even imagining and trying to prepare
for this I cannot pretend that I would be immune from “normalcy bias” because I
cannot comprehend anything so harsh could happen here.
After, One Second
After
Email: afteronesecondafter@aol.com
Audio Book (free): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4iWtViHu7U
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