What Do You Need

#676

When you get down to basics, you need very little to survive in life. Most of us have filled our houses, our closets, our garages, our sheds, our vehicles with things we seldom use and really do not need. I listen to radio shows involving the resale of items. Many times a person will use such terms as, “seldom used, like new, I don't know why I bought it”. Why did they buy these things, people who cannot afford to throw money away? Why not just buy or acquire what you need? Many have asked me, knowing how many times I have traveled around the world, “how do you pack, how do you take what you need?”

Packing for a long trip is a very exacting science … You are limited to so many bags and so much weight. In many countries, authorities are very exacting in what you bring in. I was an unusual traveler to say the least. After eight trips around the world, traveling through every conceivable climate, crossing every conceivable border, running into every conceivable situation, I felt I knew the art and science of travel.

In traveling to undeveloped, very poor, third world countries, I would always buy my clothes at a thrift store. Of course, I normally buy my clothing at a thrift store, so this was nothing new to me. But, since I intended trading my clothes for items indigenous to other countries such as craft work, weavings, carpets, carvings etc. I was careful in my choice.

Firstly, shirts, underwear, socks, things which I could launder myself. So, since I did my own laundry at night, I always had a cake of laundry soap (no powder, a cake of soap, preferably Ivory). You learn to do your own laundry, washing, then wrapping in a towel, then on hangers in your bathroom. Shirts, socks and underwear will dry overnight. Since we always stayed in multi-star hotels I always had at least two jackets which could be worn with any color slacks. I always had several ties because I always wanted to look presentable in a dining room.

So many Americans, traveling overseas, and you can always spot them, looked like something the dogs had drug up from a dumpster. Some older women, women who could afford to travel, many well educated, lost all femininity and hygiene in travel (baggy, dirty slacks, smelly distraught hair, no makeup). Most of these traveling women were objects of ridicule by the natives, evidently too tired at night to wash clothing or themselves.

I always carried a pair of dress slippers to wear to concerts or dining areas. I used safari type shorts and athletic shoes in daily excursions. The thing you must remember is to pack well and wisely. You always have in the back of your mind, “what must I have to survive any situation?”

In my camera bag, along with five different type cameras and enough film to last the entire trip (approximately 50 rolls), I would carry enough medicine and life saving things to cure about anything except cancer. In many places, the food was so distasteful and dangerous I could not eat it. I always carried several boxes of food supplements, energy bars … even candy bars. Some of us just do not have a taste for kush kush. In my stupid days, I carried travelers checks and credit cards. But you will find, if you know how to protect with a money belt, U.S. Currency is your best buying and bargaining medium.

As I have described to reporters of several travel magazines, I would leave America on a trip, with two suitcases full of clothing but would return to America with only the clothing I was wearing, the suitcases full of treasures from all over the world. For a lifetime, my homes here in Wilmington, on the beach, and in Manhattan, were decorated with objects of worldwide significance. Anyone could tell, I was a traveler. Now I have the pleasure of selling all of this “stuff” to others all over the world in online auctions. Another thing, you should never forget; carry along a large bag of small gifts … Pens, cigarette lighters and cards as gifts. In thrift stores, I always bought decorated T-shirts with messages. These go over real well as gifts to young people. Throughout the world, as in this country, any time, anywhere, I meet anyone, I always give them one of my personal business cards with my address and phone numbers. This establishes their importance as a friend.

Most people are pack rats. Your writer is the oldest rat in the travel barn. My mother saved everything … “For a rainy day”. I have prepared for a monsoon season. Those who survived the Great Depression have never recovered from that experience. Until the day they died, my parents, my grandparents, everyone they knew talked about the Great Depression. I have tried to explain it to people because I lived through it but it is something that cannot be explained. It will make an indelible, cataclysmic indention in your psyche. Many of you will live to see it because, I am fully convinced, with the condition of the world with Almighty God's ANGER at what modern, Atheistic, homosexual, decadent Communism has brought upon this earth shown in abortion, child molestation, same sex marriage, suffering of the innocent through corruption, God's destruction of humanity with the Great Flood like his destruction of Sodom is not a matter of “if” but when.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7)

There is nothing that will straighten out this world, this country, like a Great Depression which people will never forget.

One of my secretaries told me, that she had to cook every night because her children would not eat leftovers. I gave her a piece of advice I heard my mother give many times, “When they get hungry, they will eat”.

God wanted me to see conditions all over the world and made the necessary arrangements for me to travel all over the world before I became sightless. During the last 20 years of travel, prior to 1985, I just had a shadow of vision in one eye, just enough to get through airports without running into people. I can tell you without fear of contradiction that America is the only country in the world in which the population lives in total decadence … Spoiled by excess. Children are reared not to appreciate anything … not to fear anything. A country, from 1799-1892 was declared by the Supreme Court as a Christian nation. It is anything but Christian now. The same Supreme Court, just different figure heads, took prayer out of the schools in 1963 with an innocuous 21 word prayer.

The court legalized abortion in 1973 (Roe V Wade). Since 1973, 53 million of the most innocent creations, (God's chief creation) have been torn apart, painfully separated, “known only to God”. Millions have died in battle, “forgotten by country, known only to family”, on foreign battlefields. These needed only enough soil for burial. The many from foreign conflict, who have returned blind, crippled, in spite of rhetoric, have been forgotten. They get a pittance for survival. Government determines, supported by voters, that this is “what they need”.

The largest minority in America are the disabled (approximately 32% of population). Before, Hitler trying to cleanse Germany, eliminated six million German-Jewish citizens. He got rid of 275,000 German, disabled citizens. America has degraded to the place that like the unborn, or like the nursing home patients in New Orleans, it is expedient just to get rid of us. Those of us who are disabled are really not that much expense. We work like everyone else, pay much tax. The disabled do not use public parks, public libraries, public assembly halls and you will find very few disabled citizens in public institutions or prisons. We are the undesirables at church, in restaurants and at public political meetings … even family events. It makes the “normal” uncomfortable to have us around. I am the oldest grandchild in my mothers large family. My parents have been dead for many years. My mother's family has a reunion every year. I have never been invited, have never attended. Even at a funeral, which I attended at one time, I am told that they were uncomfortable. Many of us are victims of what we have, instead of what we need.

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Prepare for an uncertain future with savings of money. Prepare for health because you may have a long life. Mark Twain said, “Friendships should be kept in repair” Keep your friends, you may need them. Above all, prepare for eternal life. This is what you need.