In Chinese philosophy, the different elements: fire, air, water, metal, earth, and wood represent different energies, or dynamic states which all have the ability to influence each other. For example, water can extinguish fire, but alternatively, water can cause wood to grow. Everything flows to either an increase or a decrease, but nothing ever stays the same. One could see the constant and various transactions of these dynamic states everywhere if they were to give it careful observation.

One thing that some describe as energy that not everyone thinks about, is money. In the human world, money allows us to buy gasoline to travel, food to eat so we can remain alive and active, or any number of services that get us what we want and need. The different forms each have different uses. You’re not going to attempt to buy your groceries by burning a small group of twigs in your hand and saying, “Everything is energy, including fire and money, so I’m going to use this fire as currency because it’s all the same,” at least most people wouldn’t, though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone once tried something similar. It’s both the form and the perceived value that creates usefulness. What is the grocery store clerk going to do with a handful of fire? They can’t stash it in the register without burning up all the paper money that’s already in there and lose their job as a result of incompetency. Yet, at the same time, we pay a lot of money for fire to heat our homes and propel our vehicles. Money for fuel to power our utilities is a valuable exchange, where fire for groceries is not.

The reason I am talking so much about energy is because we appear to be heading into an energy crisis of unknown depths. As I have mentioned in previous articles, food is becoming scarcer at a rate that many people who aren’t keeping up with current events daily have a hard time seeing. Besides the aforementioned causes: supply chain stagnation, animal culling, war, fertilizer shortages, droughts, and other such causes, there is another cause which is seldom talked about, or dismissed as coincidence. A lot of food processing plants this year have been catching fire. In fact, there was one that caught fire here in Wisconsin earlier today, Wednesday, June 15th. Compared to previous years, the numbers look a little high to me. It is not unusual that these buildings would occasionally catch fire, but since President Joe Biden has been in office, there have been over 90 reported instances. The ones that caught my particular interest were when on two separate occasions, an airplane crashed into two separate food-processing plants, one in the U.S., and one in Canada, both within a week. It is easily dismissed as coincidence, but I’m not certain. Anyone curious should research it.

Conversations about nefarious plots always make interesting debates in my opinion, which can also get a bit heated at times. At this point, it almost doesn’t even matter what the cause is, because it’s happening regardless. The only thing is, if somehow it were revealed to everyone’s face that there was indeed a group, or several groups, of powerful and influential people out there who were conspiring against their greatest good in order to keep the balance of power tilted to their side, more people might be inspired to act in their own best interests and take action to safeguard their own future. Until now, there have only been hints and signs, just as there have only been hints and signs about God’s existence. It’s still as much a matter of free will as it ever has been, and I’m pretty sure that’s the way it’s supposed to be. What enjoyment is there in life and what growth is possible when you know everything for sure?

So in an energy crisis, it will become increasingly more important how we use our “energy.” “Do I really need to buy that candy bar?” Maybe I should buy a vehicle that is more fuel-efficient rather than a gas-guzzler.” Different things like that. But it’s also important not to remain in a state of scarcity, lest we risk scarcity becoming our default state and missing out on important growth that can occur.

For example, with rising food costs and decreasing availability, I’m learning how to produce my own food. I won’t be able to grow everything I want and need, but I can cut the cost of what it takes for other people to prepare some of these items for me. Learning how to garden is an investment that takes time and money, but the returns will be significant.

A couple of months ago, one of the neighborhood centers I work at asked me to help them build their garden and asked me if I’d like a space allocated to me. A couple weeks ago as I was doing deliveries in Waukesha, I drove past a house that had plastic pots for plants sitting on the curb with a sign that said “Free.” I parked and ran back, and just as I was getting to the house, the couple who lived there finished walking their dog at that exact moment and said I could take whatever I wanted. There were some smaller pots that were exactly the ones I needed for my indoor garden I’m working on, so I just took those ones. The woman also ran into her house and gave me some starter seeds, and she herself worked at a garden center. If that’s not a giant message screaming “GET STARTED ON YOUR GARDEN!” then I might be deaf. My gratitude to them could not be expressed in words, unfortunately.

If everything truly is energy, then energy is all around us at all times. It’s our ability to harness that energy that lacks sometimes, mostly due to technological concerns and knowledge. The more resourceful we become, the more we are able to use the energy available to us in practical and efficient ways. There truly is no such thing as an energy crisis, but possibly a crisis of critical thinking and imagination. Challenging times are coming. I have no doubt about this. Challenge is never about fear to me. Whenever I face a challenge, I say to myself, “In what way can I grow from this lesson” rather than repeating previous patterns in an endless loop. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about someone being rude on the internet, or an unexpected problem at work, or now, perhaps an unparalleled crisis in American history that still hasn’t fully revealed itself. My attitude is always the same.

In conclusion, I’d like to leave you, if you made it this far, with one of Bruce Lee’s most famous quotes:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee