Do you still care about the state of the world or just focus on your own life?

[pacergal]

One of the advantages of being old is that even a pessimist like me cares less every day. I do worry about my kids, but I'm doing what I can while I'm still here to help them out. I can't change the world or even the country or even the state - but I can change the lives of my kids. That's what I'm concentrating on. I've pretty much washed my hands of the rest of it.

This is good, and another thing we also concentrate on, our kids and grandkids.

 

[Koolau]

There are certainly several rouge states and non-state actors that I think could be problematic over the next couple of decades. But I would expect that we (meaning all the superpowers) would shut things down quickly. China does not want North Korean refugees streaming across the border nor does Russia want a bunch of Iranians.

Bad things are certainly going to happen. But I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We'll survive even if we have to grow our own food for a while.

IDK. I figure if anyone decides to take out Pearl, I'll be collateral. My son lived on Big Island, and he tried to grow food. Whenever he left, people stole his food and his batteries for his solar system. They even burned down his storage building. THAT (excuse me, that) was before any foreign attack. Imagine when food is truly scarce. Of course, YMMV.

 

[sengsational]

IDK. I figure if anyone decides to take out Pearl, I'll be collateral. My son lived on Big Island, and he tried to grow food. Whenever he left, people stole his food and his batteries for his solar system. They even burned down his storage building. THAT (excuse me, that) was before any foreign attack. Imagine when food is truly scarce. Of course, YMMV.

I'm not worried about WW3, but if that did happen, I do think supply chains would screech to a halt and the developed world will be impacted severely no matter what (developed) island you live on. Before covid, I might have been less pessimistic about robustness of supply chains, but that turned out to be a nice data point. If Hawaii had to support it's population on food that's grown locally (about 15% or so) chaos would ensue, so the idea that anyone who buys most of their food at a store might think that they would be impacted very little seems completely unrealistic to me.

 

[jollystomper]

I do read the news, like everyone else of course, but having 20–25 years left I really don’t care about anything except for what affects me directly. Global warming, Middle East, upcoming elections… my activism days are way behind me.

How about you?

I ground myself in 2 things related to this:

1. The Serenity Prayer.

2. The Starfish Story.

 

[steady saver]

In the book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman somewhat addresses this issue. My takeaway is that he would say something like (paraphrased) "the climate already IS screwed, things are already bad and accepting it gives you the freedom to not take it all on, to not carry the weight of the world's issues, but to also do the daily things you CAN do to make the world a little better place."

I think being kind, smiling at strangers, asking every single service person "How's your day going?" can go a long way in paying it forward and hopefully rerouting someone's day by acknowledging their existence and valuing it.

I follow news daily, but have also started reading Nice News - it comes to my inbox everyday and it is a breath of fresh air.

I have been tapering off the "regular" news slowly. I always want to be informed but I've decided the anxiety and futility isn't serving me and it's keeping me from being present and enjoying life fully right now and also being able to be present for others.

I support charities that can do the things that I can't (Doctors Without Borders, for example)

I find the less I read/listen to news, the more I like everyone!

 

[Koolau]

I'm not worried about WW3, but if that did happen, I do think supply chains would screech to a halt and the developed world will be impacted severely no matter what (developed) island you live on. Before covid, I might have been less pessimistic about robustness of supply chains, but that turned out to be a nice data point. If Hawaii had to support it's population on food that's grown locally (about 15% or so) chaos would ensue, so the idea that anyone who buys most of their food at a store might think that they would be impacted very little seems completely unrealistic to me.

Hawaii supposedly has 7 days of food on Island (old statistic that's bandied about whenever the shipping folks threaten a strike.) IDK how true that is, but whenever a hurricane or tsunami threatens, there's not a bottle of water or can of baby formula or tin of Spam or roll of TP left on shelves within less than 24 hours. During the Japan earth quake and tsunami of 2011, we found out about the impending issues by hearing people que up on the street for gas at the local Aloha Gas station. Long before the tsunami siren sounded, hundreds of cars were waiting to fill their tanks. Not all of them could as every gas station ran dry.

We store non-perishables, water, meds, batteries, etc. We easily have enough to last 3 months (if not 6.) Few do that and IDK why not, but YMMV. As you point out, Covid was the exception that proved the rule. Supply chains are one accident, screw up, pandemic, earth quake, storm or war or even rumor away. Panic is not pretty. Those who put their survival in the hands of someone else just may be disappointed. I hope it doesn't happen, but we've had too many dress-rehearsals to ignore the possibility.

By the way, we had an earth quake (mag 5.7 on Big Island) yesterday. Our building 200 miles away swayed for several seconds. Fortunately, damage state-wide was fairly light and no tsunami was generated. We try to keep up with info like this now and have battery and crank-operated radios just in case.

 

[Koolau]

I ground myself in 2 things related to this:

1. The Serenity Prayer.

2. The Starfish Story.

Good reminders. Thanks.

 

[brett]

I find myself reading more and more non NA publications and far less of NA media web sites.

 

[Markola]

A modern supply shortage is an obvious risk I hadn’t considered about island life.

 

[Koolau]

A modern supply shortage is an obvious risk I hadn’t considered about island life.

Yes, it's a whole new dimension here in the Islands. One thing EVERYONE (sorry, I mean everyone) warned us about when we moved to the Islands: If you find something you would like to own, buy it then. Do not wait for a sale or even think about your purchase. Buy it NOW! (now) It may not be there in 5 days, 5 hours or 5 minutes. If it's bought by someone else, it may never be offered again. If it is offered again, it may be weeks to months before the next shipment containing that item arrives. You don't want to be haunting the store in hopes that the item magically shows up again.

We thought this to be local hyperbole. It wasn't (isn't.)

 

[folivier]

Never lived on an island. But have experienced supply shortages from major hurricanes. When you go to the grocery store and see pallets of spam in the aisles you better pay attention!
Now being retired we have enough long term storage and bottled water for a few weeks or enough to get us to our cabin. There we have more LTS food and water. But in my mind the biggest problem will be to get out of the city safely. Once across the river there are routes to avoid any major cities.

 

[Fermion]

Yes, it's a whole new dimension here in the Islands. One thing EVERYONE (sorry, I mean everyone) warned us about when we moved to the Islands: If you find something you would like to own, buy it then. Do not wait for a sale or even think about your purchase. Buy it NOW! (now) It may not be there in 5 days, 5 hours or 5 minutes. If it's bought by someone else, it may never be offered again. If it is offered again, it may be weeks to months before the next shipment containing that item arrives. You don't want to be haunting the store in hopes that the item magically shows up again.

We thought this to be local hyperbole. It wasn't (isn't.)

Can you Amazon stuff in Hawaii? I mean, I am guessing 2 day prime delivery doesn't work lol but...

 

[Rianne]

Here's how I look at it. I'm 72 years old. For the past 50 years, I've seen the world go through all kinds of challenges, wars, deceptions, atrocities, shortages and financial disasters.

Yet, yet...my life hasn't changed one iota. Older and somewhat wiser, but just as when I was 20, I eat out five nights a week, winter in Florida, go skiing when the spirit moves me, drive nice cars, go for walks in the woods, enjoy a good drink, travel and so on.

I try not to get sucked in to causes and news items that try to get me to believe that somehow it matters. I've gone a half-century and nothing that I've been told is really, really important actually has been.

That's living in America.

 

[Car-Guy]

Yes, it's a whole new dimension here in the Islands. One thing EVERYONE (sorry, I mean everyone) warned us about when we moved to the Islands: If you find something you would like to own, buy it then. Do not wait for a sale or even think about your purchase. Buy it NOW! (now) It may not be there in 5 days, 5 hours or 5 minutes. If it's bought by someone else, it may never be offered again. If it is offered again, it may be weeks to months before the next shipment containing that item arrives. You don't want to be haunting the store in hopes that the item magically shows up again.

We thought this to be local hyperbole. It wasn't (isn't.)

I found that to be true here too. Not so much for common stuff but things like prime real estate, special cars, real collectables, etc. Get em' while they are hot. Missed several "wants" over the years trying to wait or go cheap... Not anymore!

 

[pacergal]

I ground myself in 2 things related to this:

1. The Serenity Prayer.

2. The Starfish Story.

This is a great reminder, thanks.

 

[Aerides]

Can you Amazon stuff in Hawaii? I mean, I am guessing 2 day prime delivery doesn't work lol but...

I would imagine they have some warehouses there for Prime for some things, with enough demand.

Most of us probably live well within 100 miles of your nearest amazon fulfillment center.

 

[Koolau]

Can you Amazon stuff in Hawaii? I mean, I am guessing 2 day prime delivery doesn't work lol but...

Yes, you can use Amazon. It does take longer to get stuff here than, say, California. Amazon HAS somewhat changed the dynamic I mentioned, but some things still are difficult to get - especially if you hesitate.

 

[GenXguy]

Yes, you can use Amazon. It does take longer to get stuff here than, say, California. Amazon HAS somewhat changed the dynamic I mentioned, but some things still are difficult to get - especially if you hesitate.

Do you ever run into Amazon issues where it says it won't deliver to your location? I never have before until someone here mentioned an OTA TV recording box. And when I looked it up, Amazon shows this below the price, in red:

This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location.

There was even a comment in the reviews that someone couldn't order it from Amazon to ship to Illinois, so they ordered from Walmart without issue.

I confirmed this even with some different manufacturers and sellers/shippers of these boxes, yet not all of them. I wasn't actually wanting to order one, so no big deal, but it was a first I had run into this message.

 

[MatatuPuncher]

I'm more of a curious bystander in everything that is going on in the world. Like "holy crap look at that hijacked bus that just crashed into a Gucci store and ran over a bunch of looters who briefly stopped in on their way to fight some Christian Nationalists who were about to fire bomb a Planned Parenthood facility."

And then shrug and continue on my way.

 

[Koolau]

Do you ever run into Amazon issues where it says it won't deliver to your location? I never have before until someone here mentioned an OTA TV recording box. And when I looked it up, Amazon shows this below the price, in red:
There was even a comment in the reviews that someone couldn't order it from Amazon to ship to Illinois, so they ordered from Walmart without issue.

I confirmed this even with some different manufacturers and sellers/shippers of these boxes, yet not all of them. I wasn't actually wanting to order one, so no big deal, but it was a first I had run into this message.

I have heard of that here in the Islands but have not experienced non-shipment. BUT we don't use Amazon a lot so YMMV.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I am just glad we do not have kids. Since we moved to north America in 1982 and then to the US in 1987, it has changed so much. Too much hate and division. folks are a lot greedier than they were back then. I would not relish being in the US in another 20 years. Luckily, I will be six feet under pushing up daisies by then. It is not just limited to the US either, a few other countries are no better.

 

[Fermion]

I'm more of a curious bystander in everything that is going on in the world. Like "holy crap look at that hijacked bus that just crashed into a Gucci store and ran over a bunch of looters who briefly stopped in on their way to fight some Christian Nationalists who were about to fire bomb a Planned Parenthood facility."

And then shrug and continue on my way.

That sounds like just an average day in Seattle.

 

[MC Rider]

I'm more of a curious bystander in everything that is going on in the world. Like "holy crap look at that hijacked bus that just crashed into a Gucci store and ran over a bunch of looters who briefly stopped in on their way to fight some Christian Nationalists who were about to fire bomb a Planned Parenthood facility."

And then shrug and continue on my way.

I missed that news flash.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

I kill Road Runner.

 

[cyber888]

The news that was music to my ears was a Bill in Congress that would Eliminate the Federal Taxes on Social Security Income starting in 2025. I hope it passes. It benefits all retirees