SURVIVAL

Before I get into this let me tell ya years ago, for reasons I never fully understood, I completed and passed the Southeast Asia Training/Survival Course all in preparation for my departure to Vietnam. I doubt very much that I would ever be sloshing around in the jungles or needing this so called training but hey, powers with more authority than me so ordered and back then me so-obeyed!

Lately I have found the survival shows quite challenging to my simple mind. I mean, we got this crazy Brit, Bears Grylls who will jump in a frozen lake, get out and dance around naked to get warm! Plus he shows various ways to avoid hypothermia (in my book that’s easy (a) dress warmly and (b) stay out of the cold!). And he strands himself in popular tourist spots – popular – hell, I have never heard of some of these places and finding them on a map is really a challenge too, so if this is a popular tourist place, it must be a well kept secret and for a damn good reason. He is quite a character, is extremely physically fit and he’s not bad on the eyes either. Not sure I would eat some of the things he does to show you can and they contain needed vitamins your body needs.

Then we have the wacky Canadian Les Stroud, who also shows how to survive in so called popular tourist attractions. The main difference here is that Les films his own show and is totally alone for seven days. Well, not totally, he does have a fancy phone in case of an emergency – I mean, come on, it’s a TV show not totally reality. He ain’t gonna die to show us what not to do! One thing about Les is that he shows you his mistakes – I mean one time he nearly burnt down his shelter because he has the fire to close – ya gotta love the guy, he sounds like one of us!

Okay, these are great shows and give anyone some keen survival tips. I especially like all the fire starting techniques – they are something else. I mean, they don’t kid you, rubbing two sticks together isn’t going to produce a fire quickly and this does require patience and time. And I suspect the right kind of sticks too! And some of the plants they pull up, brush off and nibble on look pretty nasty (especially those found in some Georgia swamp where you can almost smell the rotting trees and stagnant water).

Of course eating some raw animal killed within the last few hours [that other animals had been feasting on prior to your arrival) or some fish left on a rock is just so appétit-zing I want to try it NOW. During my Nam training course, we did dine on freshly caught and cleaned snakes, cooked over a fire someone had built –and I gotta tell ya, snake ain’t half bad. We also eat berries, not exactly versed in all the different kinds, some caused a major case of diarrhea and then, we avoided them big time. Mushrooms we never ate or touch, none in my group felt comfortable claiming them safe and I love mushrooms!

As for water, we had lovely tablets to toss into our canteen and no matter what water we’d put in the can, this purified it and it was safe to drink. And yes, we hiked, climbed and scaled river banks, cliffs, jungle undergrowth and some damn prickly bushes. And we made our shelters from trees, branches, leaves or in caves. However, I don’t recall any of us stripping and jumping into some river to get clean or refreshed….way too many snakes, bugs and who knows what in those waters!

Not sure where this blog is going only to say, survival shows are fun to watch but repeats of the same show do get boring in quick order. I guess I am slowly reaching the idea that perhaps we all need to step back, turn off the TV and see what is around us and that would be family in most cases. As a kid we didn’t watch much TV, we played games, read books and/or bugged Mom and Dad. Maybe we all need to step back and survive by getting to know each other again and actually spend some time together – on the other hand, if that makes you want to puke, keep watching TV!!!

If you want to forget all your other troubles, wear too tight shoes!