AM I READY?
Often, I find, people who are complete strangers to me - even on TV - seem to stare at me - right in the eye - and demand of me: “Are You Ready?”
Usually they are reminding me of some novel, quirky gadget of the commercial world which I do not possess, and will never be happy again if I go without one much longer!
Regardless of the intent of the question in today's world, I tend, very often, to hear the expression in a antiquated meaning which offended me as a child. Maybe “scared'” me is a more exact term, because it was used in a religious sense.
We lived in a town in the Appalachian Mountains where there were numerous groups of people fresh out of the more remote areas. Their religious background was nil or, if it existed at all, it was made evident with a brash, evangelistic condition which took over their entire being and made each of them n active disciple of the Lord. Some of them worked at it as if they were on commission. Their favorite expression with strangers - even as an initial greeting - there was that investigative demand: “Are You saved? Or “Are you ready?” Doom was imminent! The final trump was about to be sounded! The time was upon us all They wanted to know if I had prepared myself for the coming events! I never quite what to say. I was a born once Presbyterian, had been all my young life. I went to Sunday School each Sabbath morn, read the Bible and attended church services with my parents unaware that the end of all was so close. I thought, maybe, our minister is out of town and hasn't heard about it yet.
Anyway, that religious overtone was in the words forever afterward and continues to taint the expression today. I time I came to understand what the individuals meant when they repeated the question so often. What so many were doing, I realize now, was that they were trying to convince themselves that they were prepared; that they understood what barriers were involved, In evangelizing others they were seeking proof, .In tell and re-telling “proofs” they could then feel that they were n only prepared but worthy of the blessings to come on the Judgment Day
Politicians use the concept today in suggestions that doom is imminent for other reasons. When I hear the present-day version of the old greeting in the form of a politician crying doom and disaster ...complete failure unless I adhere to his admonitions.
I'm not puzzled at all, not scared, sure, but, I do feel a little bit sick to the stomach if they persist too long
As a Boy Scout many years ago I tried to live with the maxim:”Be Prepared” in mind. To me, that says I am ready ...or, as ready as I am going to be.
a.l.m. July 19, 2003 [c502wds]