In a blog about preparedness, why on earth are we talking about resilience? What exactly does this have to do with being prepared, and why do we care?
The first thing that you need to consider is that bad things will happen, and the more you learn to bend and be flexible, the better prepared you will be when things go wrong.
Aesop wrote about this in his fable "The Oak and the Reed"
A story about a reed and an oak, urging us not to rely on strength.
A reed got into an argument with an oak tree. The oak tree marvelled at her own strength, boasting that she could stand her own in a battle against the winds. Meanwhile, she condemned the reed for being weak, since he was naturally inclined to yield to every breeze. The wind then began to blow very fiercely. The oak tree was torn up by her roots and toppled over, while the reed was left bent but unharmed.
Those who adapt to the times will emerge unscathed.
So many of us strive to be strong and unmoved by the perils of life around us that when we are consumed by an overwhelming disaster, we find ourselves uprooted and blown asunder. Consider a pane of glass compared to a trampoline mat. The pane of glass is strong and inflexible, something that we trust to keep our homes and cars safe. It keeps the wind and rain out, and lets the sun shine in while protecting us from the heat outside. On the other hand, we have the trampoline mat which is porous, lets the wind and rain through, and blocks so much of the sun that the grass dies beneath it.
Now, I want you to think about those same two items, a pane of glass and a trampoline mat, and I want you to consider what happens when someone throws a ball at them. If it's a light ball, say a whiffle ball, the impact isn't all that different. It's going to hit the object and bounce off without doing too much at all.
image courtesy Wikimedia
Now, I want you to consider something larger and heavier hitting those same items, say something like a baseball. Now we start to see where this is going, eh? While the baseball will likely break the window, the trampoline mat will flex and bend with the impact of the ball, before resuming its shape.
The glass is strong, but the trampoline mat is resilient!
When people, organizations, structures, operations, communities, and anything else you can think of are all resilient, they bend and adapt before bouncing back. The more resilience we can build into our daily lives in as many ways as possible, the better prepared we will be for when disaster strikes. That's the heart of this blog, and what I am passionate about. I want each of you to be better prepared and as a result to be more resilient so that when disaster strikes, no matter how big or small, you can bounce back and find a new normal as quickly as possible.
