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The other day, Stephen and I attended a pleasant housewarming party hosted by a rowing friend of mine. As the hostess gave another rowing buddy and me a tour of the house, she pointed out places that needed work.
At one point, we stopped at a vast, deep, narrow hall closet. It was well lit -- almost too bright -- and was two floors high. She wanted to explain that it was once intended to be a stairwell to an attic but was never finished. It was being used as miscellaneous storage in the meantime and had long, contiguous rows of shelving along each wall.
Along two walls were rows and rows and rows of containers that looked like brown coffee cans. The other person on the tour asked what all the cans were for.
"Food," the hostess explained. "Enough food to sustain five people for three months." The other person taking the tour then said, jokingly, "Well we know where to come in case of an emergency!" The hostess quickly shot back through a forced laugh, "Well we won't let you in, ha ha!"
The hostess and her husband are the first people I know who have actually taken serious steps to prepare for an emergency -- specifically, terrorism.
They own a dog that is guard dog first, pet second. It's quite friendly and was wandering the dinner-party crowd that night looking for scraps, as any typical house dog would do. But it has been extensively (and expensively) trained as a guard dog, and it quickly darted back to the host and obediently sat next to him each time he called it.
I also know through past casual conversation that the couple and their grown children have been trained on how to use guns.
The hostess's husband is in the fingerprinting business -- and from the looks of their new house, business is booming. I think he has a lucrative government contract, which wouldn't surprise me given the government's renewed interest in homeland security.
But clearly, her husband is an expert on how to protect oneself.
I wondered after seeing all the steps they've taken whether they're just vigilant, obedient, God-fearing Americans doing their part -- or whether the husband, through his possible government contacts, knows something you and I don't, and I'm just woefully unprepared for the worst.