I came home today and there was no water at the tap. It got me thinking again: what if? What if this were the case over the long term? What to drink? How to cook? How to stay warm? How do we plan or take action for the present and the future when our typical services are down? A day, two days, weeks, months? As Permaculture practitioners, if we are doing our work, there would be vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts at hand, water in the cistern, a source of fuel for heat, etc. But would this source of fuel last? We have become so lackadaisical with the services that we receive from city government and other sources. It is expected that when we turn on the tap that water will be there, that when we pull up to the pump fuel will come out in a torrent. Enmeshed in the greater grid, we have lost our ability to provide for the family. Our minds have been colonized by the “powers” that be, you know, those guys over there, the ones who supply our every need. “Waste” will simply go away, will it not? Waste not, want not. Anyway, are we providing for ourselves and our neighbors and are they doing the same? Or have we lost the thread that will take us to the end of the maze?