Embracing the 4th Turning

Reading The 4th Turning for a 3rd time and reading and listening to several commentaries on it has made the ideas stick this time. I have started looking at everything around me and trying to identify what turning’s perspective it represents, or what turning it was created during. I have noticed a pattern in many of my favorite things: they all represent or come from a 1st turning. For example, I love a certain sweet, innocent, tailored style of clothing for my children – anything with a Peter Pan collar or smocking catches my eye. I now realize that style is the same as the clothing in picture books written in the 40s and 50s. I idolize the distinct gender roles and happy family dynamics portrayed in these same books and dream of what it would be like to live in such a time. I can see that as a child of a vicious unraveling and a young adult in a burgeoning crisis, I long for the happy peace of a golden era, a 1st turning high.

As Strauss and Howe prophesy, it is the time we are born in that shapes us and then we in turn shape time for our descendants. Of course people who share the longing I have for a peaceful high will ultimately create it for their children or grandchildren – how could we in good conscience do anything else? I hope Strauss and Howe are right. At the same time, I hope my grandchildren prove them wrong and rather than turning the world upside down in another raucous awakening, my descendants find a peaceful way to wake the world up. I guess I really do think and hope in linear time.

I’m grateful for my place in history. I feel the weight of my mission but I know, God willing, I can fulfill it. I hope that as I do, I will help my family and community to weather the 4th turning gracefully, help “the right side” to win the freedom war, and then participate in the founding period as the next saeculum begins. I don’t think I’d choose any other place for myself in the unfolding drama.

Dr. DeMille’s talk, The Great Depression of 2012, really got me thinking in terms of 4th and 1st turning perspective. Here’s what my family is doing or planning to do to embrace the 4th turning we are in and prepare for the coming 1st turning.

Working towards producing or trading locally for all my family’s food

• I’m learning to garden
• My local friends and I are planning to trade produce and other goods as soon as we have extra. We’d eventually like to set up a Craigslist style online trading website to facilitate local trading.

Working to have the skills and equipment necessary to protect ourselves and our property in case of civil disruptions or riots

• My husband has started going “shooting” with a friend to get good at using a gun. He’d like me to start going too.
• We plan to buy a few guns and ammunition this year

Preparing and planning for possible emergencies and natural disasters

• Hope to complete our 72 emergency kit in a couple months
• Hope to complete our 1 yr supply of food this year
• We have purchased and plan to study a survival skills guide book with the hope of then developing the skills and absorbing the knowledge contained in it.

Preparing and planning for financial emergencies. Though we don’t see an immediate threat to my husband’s job, we know he could lose it any day. Especially if we move into a depression, we can’t count on him having a job.

• Made a plan to work towards my husband starting his own business in a year
• Working this year towards living on 70% of our income and saving or donating the rest
• Working towards owning a home outright. We have mortgage for our current home that’s more than the house is now worth and we hate our neighborhood. We are saving for a large downpayment for our next home. In a couple years we hope to rent out our current home and buy a home we can stay in forever. We want to put a lot of money down on our next home and pay off the mortgage within a few years. Once we own our home outright and are able to produce most of our own food, we won’t be so dependent on regular income.

Getting Leadership Education so we can be leaders in our home and community

• We are homeschooling our 3 children in the leadership education model
• My husband and I are both working on scholar phase informally right now. I hope to re-enroll with GWU in the spring.
• I hope to complete a bachelor’s degree with GWU and then move on to a master’s and ultimately a Jefferson PHd.
• My husband and I are both trying to get a vision of our personal missions. Mine feels pretty clear to me. My husband has some vague ideas but hopes to gain clarity as he pursues education

Starting Mini-Factories. I’ve already mentioned most of these but we are working on several mini-factories.

• My husband is working to start a business
• We are working to grow our own food
• We hope to help in establishing a community food trading market
• We are homeschooling our children
• I am working to build an Academy that will grow into a Commonwealth school
• I hope to start selling books at local TJED events this year.
• I hope to get GWU extension courses going here and maybe even grow that into a GWU, Washington satellite campus (Dream of my dreams!)