Making the Most of What We Have

My mother and father met when they were both 14 years old and never wanted to be apart, but Mom's parents insisted she go to college. After three years and three colleges, each closer and closer to Texas A&M where Dad was studying, Mom finally got their permission to marry, though Dad still had a year until graduation, and this was during "the Great Depression" (they had only $50 between them).

Mom had always been able to make something out of nothing, but those early years of their marriage reinforced her natural tendency to preserve. Her whole life, she washed, saved, and marked with a note every single item that might possibly be re-used at some future point.

I was pretty much the opposite; being an Army brat and having to leave so much behind with every move, but when Mom lived with me during her final 16 years, some of her self-preserving nature rubbed off on me. I'm so grateful, because her example has helped me think through how to preserve food, especially, but also how to preserve mental and physical health during these months of isolation.

Mouse totem teaches us to make the most of what we have, no matter how scarce the resources or how tough the environment.