If you have not seen the TV show Alone, it is one of my favorites, and well worth watching.
For those of you unfamiliar with Alone, it is an American survival competition series on the History channel. Some seasons can be found on Netflix.
It follows the self-documented daily struggles of 10 individuals as they survive alone in the wilderness for as long as possible using a limited amount of survival equipment. They get to choose what they consider the 10 most valuable survival items from a standard menu.
They must build a shelter, purify water, obtain food, and make fire.
Participants are completely isolated from one another so that they do not interact with other contestants. They can tap out at any time for any reason or be removed from the competition by medical staff following a health check.
The winner walks away with $500,000 dollars (they upped it to 1 million recently).
I always enjoy hearing about what motivates someone to take on such a grueling physical and psychological challenge, and also watching the mental process they go through when they face misery, starvation, setbacks, or nasty weather. It’s not unusual to have dangerous wildlife like grizzly bears or mountain lions circling their shelters at night.
Some people decide to apply for the show due to a major life event like a job loss, divorce, or a death in the family. Some people want to inspire their children. Others want to see where their breaking point is, and some just desperately need the money.
Even when contestants don’t win, they almost always walk away with enormous personal transformation.
But predicting the winner is often not obvious. People from very diverse life paths often win different seasons.
Some people can tolerate the physical misery, and some can’t.
Others have great survival skills but miss their families.
Some can go weeks without food.
Still others can recover from horrific illnesses without medical treatment.
Psychology has uncovered some of the traits that might make someone more resilient, gritty, or persistent—but much remains to be understood.
How do seemingly ordinary people from all walks of life develop deep fortitude and endurance?
At the conclusion of Season Two, there was a particularly inspiring quote from the winner.
Spoiler alert.
David McIntyre was a 50-year-old from Kentwood Michigan who spent 66 brutal days surviving on Vancouver Island and living off the land in complete isolation. He endured miserable wet and cold conditions. Some nights he had water running through his shelter and he survived on a diet of periwinkle snails, seaweed, and banana slugs.
Listen to his words at the conclusion of the contest:
“I have a love-hate relationship with this place.
In the morning, you wake up and you confront the reality of your situation.
Some days it’s great; some days it’s horrible.
But suffering has value—we avoided at all costs, we would never want to go back and repeat it—but it has value.
It’s a part of life and nobody gets through life without suffering, nobody.
The question is what are you going to allow it to do in you?
You can allow that suffering to make you bitter, angry…just a wretched person. You can allow that suffering to eat away your soul and turn in on itself and just chew you apart— or you can look for the deeper meaning in it.
My philosophy on suffering is that God’s trying to teach me something. And I know that in the end I get to keep those lessons, but the pain goes away.”
May you find inspiration, meaning, and hope in his words.
Have a great weekend.
Parker
