How to Hunker
lessons from Turtletown

We learned last time that hunkering is taking shelter and holding stubbornly to your position. OK, well and good. But what are you holding to and taking shelter in? Our system of government, or how our society plans for our future security?
In both cases we are relying on "others" to help us survive the inclemency; and that is not the definition of hunkering down. Remember, we retreat to our dens because our societal climate is threatening us. Unfortunately many of us are trying to figure out how to beat the system which brought us here by using that same system (more on this in a moment). We must look elsewhere for our example of "how to hunker."
Take for instance, turtles and tortoises. These are world class hunkerers. They carry their own little hunker-bunker right on their backs. All they have to do is lay down and pull their legs, head, and tail into their shell and wallah! they are a fortified, low profile bump on the ground. Handy in those unexpected storms life throws at us all. For the long run though turtles burrow into the earth and prepare for a three to eight month period of dormancy, knowing the cold and rain will come at its set time.
Paula Morris in her book "Hibernation Guidelines for Turtles and Tortoise," she tells us: "A Horsfields tortoise in Kazakhstan can stay under-
ground for all but three months of the year, although it's not necessarily hibernating the entire period; it emerges only to drink when it rains and vegetation becomes available, then digs back into the soil to a depth where the temperature is stable and the humidity level comfortable."
So, I conclude from all this turtle talk that hunkering is a planned season of giving up certain things willingly in order to survive until conditions get better down the road. The key here is that the turtles are not looking to other turtles to get them through, to supply them with the endless goodies they need to keep the good life flowing. They are satisfied with simply surviving. They just accept and rely on what their creator built into them; they accept the survival gifts they were given.
Each of us will have to decide how or if we hunker, and whether we will trust in ourselves or our creator to help us survive. Those who do not believe in God or hunkering will be at the mercy (or lack thereof) of another in an endless string of failed social ideas and governmental plans. Take for instance the high cost of fuel and getting a new car.
Trying to beat the high cost of fuel by buying a new auto (a hybrid for instance) does not represent a net saving on your overall transportation costs, what with higher car payments, insurance, etc. You cannot beat the system by using the system; this is one of the great lies we have been fed. The answer to beating the system is to stop driving whatever car you have as much, and start walking, riding a bike, or taking mass transit. Yukkie pooh!
Many of us would rather look to the government to protect us and provide for our safe landing. Don't. Take for example IRAs, 401Ks, and Pension Plans regulated by the government to allow people to avoid taxation on a portion of their income which they set aside for retirement. Ask the good folks who worked at Enron about that as they saw most, if not all, of their money siphoned off by those they trusted to administer these govern-mentally promoted plans with integrity. Surely the government would protect us, right?
Well, seven years after Enron's collapse the litigation is still bogged down and the attorney heading the fight is in prison for defrauding his clients.
In Turtletown they now how to hunker, inside the hard shell given them. They will willingly go without in the short term to benefit the long term. From Hunker Bunker backpacks to wide screen, surround sound dens, the natural world embraces their survival gifts.
Will you be satisfied with simple survival? Will you search out and embrace the hunker bunker God has given to you?
Or will you continue to put your trust and faith in a system that has either ripped you off directly or penalize you if you need to dip into your nest egg to survive the very situation they created?