Little Red Disclosure Tablets

Blog entries that get the most traffic on this website are the ones with a) pictures and b) stories of where I have failed.  I check both of these boxes tonight.

Not my teeth.  I do a much better job at brushing than this.

I'm a dentist's kid.  As a child, this meant a number of things:

• Our dental and orthodontia care were free.
  
  
• Dad would not allow my brother or me to address him as "Doc," although that's what his granddaughters call him.
  
  
• My brother and I were guinea pigs for the latest dental device/procedure/technique that he wanted to try.  In fact, we still are.
  
  
• We used a lot of those little red disclosure tablets as kids, in an effort to show us just how much we sucked at our oral care regimen.

A while back, I found a drawer full of these tablets at my parents' house - and I do mean a drawer full.  I didn't know anyone hoarded disclosure tablets.  Turns out my parents do.  It never crossed my mind that zombies would be so focused on the adequacy of their teeth brushing, but perhaps they will be.

I took a handful of these tablets back to Texas with me - remember, I said they had a whole drawer full of these things - because I wanted to test my brushing from time to time.  Also, I was intrigued by the fact the best by date of the tablets was 1996.  Old habits die hard I suppose, and the urge to test a dental product 20 years past its prime was simply too much.

I began using them every four to six weeks, checking on my brushing technique.  During a recent disclosure tablet use session, a question popped into my head that bothered me:  

               What if I could take a disclosure tablet to show me every shortcoming in my life?  Would I take it?

Most of us think our lives are, more or less, in good shape.  We may have shortcomings, but it's rare that we think our lives are filled with errors, shortcomings and bad habits.  Our friends are hesitant to point them out to us, because they are our friends and want us to be happy with ourselves. 

But our lives are, in fact, filled with errors, shortcomings and bad habits.  

My diet isn't as good as it could be.  I let stress affect me more than I should.  My preparedness efforts are not as focused as they should be.  I let my consumption of bearish economic news affect my investment decisions.  I don't get enough sleep.  I worry that I haven't accomplished as much with my life as I should have at this point.  I let past failures and problems haunt me.  I spend too much time on social media.  

And these are just the things I am aware of.  

This isn't meant to be negative or depressing.  In fact, it's precisely this kind of Life Disclosure Tablet results that led me to begin tithing.  To recognize my tendency to use social media in ways that may be hurtful to others.  To become a stronger advocate for local charities.  To get involved in local government. To lead discussions in my Sunday school class.  To re-prioritize my preparedness efforts.  To write two books.  

Sound preparedness means we are regularly conditioning ourselves to deal with emergencies and difficult situations.  If you want to be really good at preparedness, you must regularly engage in honest, critical self evaluation in order to root out the things that are holding you back, making you less resilient, and restricting your ability to be an effective leader and citizen during a crisis.

I urge you to resist the urge to buy more storable food or prepper supplies for a period of time, and instead be brutally honest with yourself about things about your life you need to improve.  It will pay great dividends in your long life as well as during an emergency.