There's a saying, though it's a sensible one so most kids these days have never heard it, "begin as you mean to go on." Because it was often enough heard before the turn of the 20th century, it may leave some folks scratching their heads. "Start out as you intend to go," might make it easier.

But what, ultimately, does it mean?

If you're about to get married, and intend it to be a lifetime commitment, you go into it with dedication, faithfulness, and steady intent to be a good spouse, and most of your decisions in life will include the thought, "is this decision, that I must make, going to be good for my spouse?". Most of us old married folk heard this before we married, some of us even talked about it in private.

But it goes much further than that.

We're future-minded, those of us with food on the shelf. We know we want to eat tomorrow, and next week, and next month. Come hell or high water, the kids must be fed and protected. If something happens to my family, there's MORE kids out there that will need fed and protected than I could ever hope to find and help. In other words, it's not just our instincts for ourselves, it's species survival, and the genetic code has already proven that there's been a few times we were almost wiped out.

So we begin to put shelf-stable food up, to learn self-sufficiency, get tools, seeds, and defense in order, to learn animal husbandry, even if we don't have a place to practice it.

But in your day to day actions, is it really practiced? Do you have a supply of leather that you could make washers and gaskets from in a pinch, and maybe patch or resole shoes and boots or rough out some gillies or moccasins? Do you make an impressive meal, and throw away nutritious leftovers, and discard high calorie, even preferable, fats to eat what you're used to because it's familiar? Walk uselessly around your neighborhood for exercise, when you could hang a heavy bag in the garage, and learn the difference between a jab, a cross, and an uppercut? The walk will benefit your health, dancin' with that bag could save your life or a loved one.

I just ate a modest breakfast, and wiped up my plate with the last bites of my toast. It was perfectly satisfying, it was also a meal my great grandparents might have eaten during what we now call the great depression. I didn't choose what I did out of any lack, but out of an abundance of options. And I increased tomorrow's options by today's actions. Gonna go get strapped now, again, increasing future options by current actions. Getting dressed means getting that too.