I’ve occasionally considered what I would do in the event of a global catastrophe. Not in the immediate aftermath (where presumably I’d be racing around fighting off zombies or escaping a new ice age or the spread of a death-plague) but in the long term, civilization-has-collapsed era. Assuming I survive the zombie-glacier-death-plague.

Because honestly, I don’t think most of my skills would be particularly useful. I can write software. I can do trigonometry. I can write novels. I can create latex monster masks and sew quasi-medieval costumes (using a sewing machine, of course).

I might end up as a gardener, I suppose. I could crochet scarves against the glacial chill and entertain people with my inexpert fiddling as we cluster around our campfires. If I had access to a library, I am pretty sure I could teach myself other things.

But still, I suspect I am woefully prepared for life after technology.

Which is why I found the Colony so fascinating. It’s a reality show in the vein of Frontier House or Manor House, except the participants are living in a post-apocalyptic future, after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. We recently watched the first season via Netflix and man, I am amazed by what these folks accomplished!

Generators, water filtration systems, communication devices, solar-powered vehicles. And beyond that, it’s eye-opening to see how their society evolves, as the show tests them with maurauders, nomads begging for food, diminished resources, and more.

There were many times I wished I could have seen more than the final edited program. Frex, early on there’s a scene where the female colonists all end up washing (apparently) everyone’s clothing, and some of the male colonists say some kind of offensive things about this (on a different camera). And I wonder — did the women take on this work, because of the societal norms they were familiar with? Did the men encourage it? Did any of the women actually question it?

It was a hard show to watch at times, because there is a lot of strife and yelling and just plain mean behavior among the colonists, but it is still (imo) worth checking out. Especially for my favorite two colonists, John C aka “the Professor” and Leilani the self-defense specialist/personal trainer.

What about you all? Do you have any practical skills to apply in the event of an apocalypse?

Now I am off to see if my local continuing education facility offers classes in living off the land and building solar power stations. Or fighting zombies.