SLM Daily

In response to yesterday's financial markets post, my mother (an artist and teacher by trade) helpfully—but a little disconcertingly—emailed me a list of survival skills she's taught herself over the years. Apparently these include, but are not limited to:

• pottery
• weaving
• gardening
• slaughtering chickens
• sewing
• making paper
• blowing glass
• welding
• carving and building with stone and wood
• recycling
• cutting down and planting trees
• canning fruits and vegetables
• solar collection and electricity generation
• building a compost bin
• basketry
• foraging plants for natural fabric dye
• growing medicinal herbs
• making soap
• silk-screening
• lithography
• tending a fire
• casting metal

Then she mentioned last week's Suburban Journal story about a Festus family that lives in a cave—and how they're selling it due to financial difficulties. It seems even cave-dwellers are ending up underwater (!) on the mortgage.

So um...exactly which part of that was supposed to be reassuring? —Margaret Bauer, Associate Editor