Over the years I’ve written about preparedness, inflation, debt, gardening, solar power, privacy, surveillance, government, faith, community, my dog’s snake bite…and a hundred other subjects. At first glance they don’t seem to have much in common.

One article might be about growing tomatoes. Another about the Federal Reserve. Another about emergency preparedness or the latest political clown show in Washington.

Different subjects…different problems. Or are they?

The longer I pay attention to life and write about it, the more I find myself asking the same questions over and over. I just didn’t recognize it at first.

It isn’t a political question. It isn’t an economic question. It isn’t even a preparedness question. It’s a very human question…maybe the one that is most important above all others.

What gives a person the ability to direct his own life?

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Maybe more than I ever have before. Some people call it freedom. Some call it liberty. Others call it independence or self-reliance.

Those words all matter. But I think there is another word that sits more at the core.

Agency.

Not political agency or social agency…just agency. The ability of an individual to make choices and act on them.

When you stop and think about it, almost everything we do in life either strengthens that ability…or weakens it:

• Learning a new skill
• Growing a garden
• Paying off debt
• Saving money
• Repairing something instead of replacing it
• Building strong families
• Knowing your neighbors
• Learning CPR
• Learning self-defense
• Reading & pondering before believing

None of those things are really about vegetables, money, tools, or first aid when you get right down to it. They’re about increasing your ability to make decisions when life doesn’t go according to plan. It gives you options.

Preparedness has never been about just owning stuff…or getting more and more stuff. At least it shouldn’t be. Preparedness is about preserving options. It’s about increasing your ability to respond instead of simply react.

In other words…it’s about agency.

Once I began looking through that philosophical lens, I noticed something interesting…the same question applies almost everywhere. To economics, education, technology, politics, communities, and even to ourselves.

What if almost every important decision we make can be examined through one simple question?

Does this increase my ability to direct my own life…or decrease it?

Does it increase my ability to direct my own life? Or does it…in this case a “belief”…slowly transfer that capability/responsibility or options somewhere else?

Notice what I’m not asking. I’m not asking whether something is Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, or any other relative comparison along those lines.

The first question…the one that matters most to me…is much simpler:

What does this do to the agency of an individual?

Some of you will probably disagree with the conclusions I eventually reach on different subjects…and that’s okay. In fact, I hope you do your own thinking. And I’ve told you for years to do so, especially to do your own research.

This site has never been about collecting followers or making money…that’s not my goal. It’s about encouraging people to think more clearly about preparedness. Then I realized it was more than that. I want people to consider more options, think outside the boxes we create for ourselves or the boxes we fall into. I want people, myself included, to ignore politics and think about principles.

If this idea of agency helps you do that, wonderful. If it causes you to challenge my conclusions, that’s even better. That means you thinking, pondering, researching, and praying.

Over the coming months you’ll probably notice this concept showing up more often in my writing. Not because I’ve discovered some grand new philosophy. I’ve simply found a question that seems to connect many of the things I’ve been writing about for years.

So the next time you read one of my articles, you might try asking yourself the same question that I am asking myself more and more. My thought is…you can agree with me…or disagree with me. Either is fine. But that first principle that I have now adopted is this…

Does this (whatever it is) increase or decrease the ability of individuals to direct their own lives?

I don’t know that every difficult issue can be answered by asking that question. But I have a growing feeling that every issue we face today ought to begin there. Will you ask yourself that question along with me?

Food for thought…if you’re hungry…