Be Prepared for Anything

They always tell you to expect the unexpected. But you know, even after a while, the unexpected becomes expected—and it's easier to prepare for.

When I was a youngster growing up in Texas, we had a problem with scorpions. If you don't know what they are, look it up in the dictionary. They have pinchers, they look like little miniature lobsters, and they have venom. Now, that venom is not fatal—it's not like that of the Brown Recluse spider—but it's the kind of thing that can get you in the night.

Therefore, when I was growing up, just like in movies about the Old West, we never once—well, let's put this way, maybe once, but never again—put our shoes (or God forbid our boots) on without turning them upside down, shaking them a few times, beating them against the frame of the doorway so the scorpions would fall out.

Of course we'd kill them right away, and we'd go from there.

And I guarantee you, in the house I grew up in—and it was on the edge of the city, so it was a little bit worse than being in the interior—our beds did not touch the walls, and the covers never touched the floors. Because scorpions can climb, you know…

One of the most striking memories I have is when my brother came to visit me one day, and of course we didn't have a lot of extra space, so he was sleeping on the floor. Well, at two or three a.m., I remember screaming, hollering, yelling. A scorpion had stung him in the night. It got into his covers, on the little pallet we'd made on the floor.

Now that was expected, so shame on him. We let him do it. But I'll tell you what—I just heard a story from someone else just recently. I just came from the funeral of my father-in-law, 74 years of age, may he rest in peace.

His sister, 91 years of age, was sleeping tranquilly in her bed. For those of you who know La Ciudad de Panamá (Panamá City), she lives in a sector called Juan Diaz. And of course there are bad guys here—we call them maliantes—just like there are everywhere. It's no different tha
L.A., I can guarantee you that for sure.

But, how do you expect the unexpected? These youths come out and they're shooting off some guns up into the air—and a bullet comes down from the sky while this lady is sleeping, penetrates her roof, goes through her ceiling, strikes her in her knee, and shatters her knee.

She’s not living in a war zone, or a neighborhood that’s that bad. Interesting, isn’t it?

And I'm not laughing at all at her misfortune… It would be serious to anybody. But can you imagine the way she sat bolt upright? Can you imagine her wondering what in the hell happened? Can you imagine being prepared for that?

Be prepared for anything, because anything can happen.
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