Welcome, hard times!

What is it with the world? Are we reaching a point where Earth needs to purge itself yet once again of an overly populated creature? Earthquakes, tsunamis, storms -- name it, and surely there will be at least a hundred people dead. Add to that the difficulties of the times -- ballooning gas prices, soaring prices of basic commodities, etc. These are bound to get someone dead one way or another.

Truly, this is an age of survival of the fittest. But by fittest, it does not necessarily mean being physically fit. You can be fit in mind. The key to make it through these hard times is self sufficiency. It's like going back to basics, back to the early 1900s when life in the Philippines was so simple, yet everyone enjoyed it to the fullest. So what if they didn't have ipods or laptops or mobile phones? People loved each other's company more back then, kids had fun with street games, old folks danced to the music of a combo.

So in this day and age where technology dominates, how can we be self sufficient? Well, for one, we could ride a bike to work and back home. No need to depend on gas for fuel. It's all leg power. The downside is that it is way too tiring, and riding a bike through EDSA is definitely a death warrant for most people. On the upside, it tones your body, gives you a good cardiovascular workout, saves the planet from vehicular environmental pollutants, and of course, doesn't cost you as much as getting gas nightly or weekly. You simply need to invest on a good bike and probably some maintenance work every now and then.

Another thing you can do is to routinely plant vegetables in your backyard. This is self-sufficiency to the extreme. Weekly, plant something, like tomatoes, cabbage, pechay, or what have you, and come harvest time, you have plenty to eat. And since you plant on a weekly basis, you harvest on a weekly basis as well. You could leave out the rice and go vegan. Or get a chicken to lay you eggs so you can be an ovo-vegetarian. Buy a small rubber or plastic swimming pool where you can take care of tilapia fingerlings if you are a fish aficionado. The goal here is to avoid buying stuff from the market.

Saving up on electricity bills? Push your kids to savor the joy of being outdoors and playing taguan pung, patintero, agawan base, Chinese garter, tumbang preso and what have you. It will help them develop their social skills and give them the exercise they really need. It won't cost anything to play these games, unlike if your kids are cramped up in the house playing PS3, X-Box, Wii, or other similar game consoles (of course, playing them would entail electricity costs) with the aircon running 24/7, or watching DVDs of Tom and Jerry, Barney, or other kiddie shows. Invest on good old books instead of making them surf the Net all the time.

I still need to think about other self-sufficient methods of coping with these times in my future entries. It won't be easy at first, but doing them will definitely be fun and beneficial for you. Maybe, after some time, you'll get the hang of it.