Why Survive?

What is the point of survival?  Developing skills, collecting gear and going out into various environments to test yourself can be an interesting hobby, but again, what’s the point?  The real question we need to answer is; why are we so interested in staying alive?  When we ask it this way, it suddenly becomes a little clearer.  Generally, people who are healthy and well adjusted emotionally, want to continue living for as long as possible with as few problems as possible.

Whether we realize it or not, everyone is engaged every day in survival.  Without shelter, water, food etc. it won’t be long before death begins to knock on our door.  So, we rent or buy a place to live, we work for money to purchase food and to pay our water bill, keep the heat on in the winter and the AC on in the summer, we replenish our supply of clothing for warmth or to stay cooler, we bathe so that bacteria doesn’t accumulate and make us sick, we go to the doctor when we are sick, try to eat right so we stay healthy, exercise to prevent other types of illnesses and the list goes on and on.

For those who practice survival skills, it’s really just a desire to be able to solve the problems that would come about if there was a disruption in our modern way of life or if one was on a vacation or hunting trip and found themselves suddenly alone and needing to rely on only what they can make or procure for themselves.  They also realize that very few people grow their own food any more, or even know how or possess the tools to do so.  As well as the fact that much of our food comes from many hundreds or even thousands of miles away and any disruption in the food supply could cause a problem.  Indeed as our society becomes more connected through technology, that very science that has freed up so much of our time has also made us more vulnerable.

A good analogy would be the comparison between carving a message on stone or saving it on a thumb drive.  Stone lasts for millennia and can be read during the day or by firelight by anyone who has the ability to read the language.  A thumb drive depends on having the right computer hardware and software, electricity from a power station miles away, can be destroyed by water, too much heat, corrosion etc.  Imagine that you are in a wilderness area and your survival depended on a stone tablet carved in your language or a thumb drive.  What is the most durable?  What if you don’t have a computer with you?  What if the battery is dead?  True, the thumb drive is more portable, more sophisticated and holds many more times the information.  But the very technology itself is far more fragile than stone.  Even a paper notebook is more durable.  A thousand years from now a stone carving will still be around.  Will there be a computer that can read the thumb drive?  An aluminum can will completely degrade into the soil in approximately 200 years, how long will that thumb drive last even in optimal storage conditions? It would be like someone giving you an 8 Track tape.  Could you even play it?  I confess, I don’t even own an 8 Track player.  Do you?

Survival on the streets as a homeless person is a somewhat different skill set than someone surviving in the desert or a heavily forested area.  There are, of course, some areas of overlap.  However, the same set of problems always present themselves.  You need to find shelter from weather, you need fluids to drink, you need calories to keep going.

So, survival in it’s purest sense is just the desire to go on living regardless of the circumstances.  Society is fragile and sophisticated and depends on long supply lines that might be disrupted by storms, earthquakes, wars etc.  I don’t know about you, but I want to go on living for as long as possible with as much comfort as possible.  That is why I learn and practice survival skills.  And because I care about others, I want to pass on as much information as possible through teaching classes and this blog etc.

Many years ago a Man came into our world as a little baby.  He did not come to survive, His purpose was to die.  Unlike so many of us, He wanted to give His life for us so that we could survive the real enemy we all face, Death.  Because of His sacrificial Death on the Cross of Calvary, we can know what real life is about.  When you know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you can survive even death!

James B.

PS. You can check out my website where you can set up training for many of these skills at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.