12 Invaluable Life Lessons We Learnt From Stephen King Novels

10. The Importance Of A Variety Of Life-Skills - The Stand

When I was a kid, my mum used to tell me to go outside and watch my dad fix the car. God ... didn't she realize I was watching only the third best episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, starring Erin Gray? I mean, you never knew when they would show that episode again! I figured if Dad knew how to fix the car, then why should I? Of course, as I'm in my forties now and the only things I know about an alternator are how to spell it correctly and that it just cost me $450 for a mechanic to replace it, I'm starting to re-evaluate that whole line of thinking. It's nice to have a wide array of skills at your disposal so that if anything should happen €“ you know, like the complete collapse of society and the remnants of the American population are now reduced to a fraction of its previous size, then it might actually be handy to know which end of the dipstick to stick into the oil tank. Yeah, as the characters of The Stand discovered, knowing actual useful things like mechanics, electricity and how to re-establish power and access to fuel to run a community and bring it back from the Stone Age are damn important things to have in your back-pocket should the world ever experience anything what Mr. King illustrated in this story. I think that was the appeal in this book: seeing what people could do when they were forced to rely upon themselves. There were so many incidents about characters who were formerly architects or electrical engineers now thrust into roles of ad hoc city planners or power station managers because their skillsets made them the best choices to get society up and running again. It wasn't about salaries or any of the other artificial constraints that we manufacture within society €“ it was just about making society work. I mean, I'm a teacher €“ so at the very least, I'd be somewhat useful in maintaining knowledge and making sure that history and information were properly disseminated to the youth of tomorrow in the post-apocalyptic world, but who am I really kidding? So, if you're not handy like me, then I'd suggest you and I make our ways to the Learning Annex or at the local Continuing Education Centre so that we are able to recognize which end of a hand-drill you grab. Varied skill-set: it's the way to fend off the zombies or the Rapture or whatever is going to do us in at the End of Days.