Have you ever watched “Naked and Afraid?” Airing Sunday nights on the Discovery Channel, each episode features one man and one woman - who don’t know each other from Adam – who are left naked in the most extreme corners of the world, like the Amazon rainforest or Tanzania.

 

The castaways’ quest is to survive for 21 days, braving the elements without even the shirts on their backs. They are each able to bring one item to help with their three-week survival. It’s interesting to see what they choose. Common items include fire starters, knives and machetes.

 

I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine wanting to do this, but some find it to be the ultimate challenge to test their skills and instincts. Some make it and some do not.  It’s quite interesting to see the situations which they face and the decisions they make. I think it was ingenious for one of the nude dudes to bring duct tape. He used it for everything from making drinking cups and constructing shelter to marking his trail. I find the show entertaining plus a lesson in resourcefulness. And that positivity is a good offset to the gross factor – like when they eat the eggs from pregnant snakes or roast dirty birds over an open fire.

 

That isn’t the only survival show which frequents our family TV. My guys have introduced me to those including “Ultimate Survival Alaska” and “Live Free or Die,” both broadcast by the National Geographic Channel.  But these shows address the other side of the survival coin, so to speak. Instead of testing extreme areas and conditions outside their comfort zone, the folks on these programs have chosen to live – all the time – under such conditions.  They love and crave nature and believe in living off the land to the highest degree.

 

We watched a guy named Thorn make his own rod and tackle to take to the mountain waters of North Carolina. Even when the angling didn’t work out, he stayed upbeat – willing to live from his mistakes and vowing to try again another day. In the meantime, he filled his creel with chickweed and made the best of eating mountain greens instead of protein-rich fish.

 

Another episode of “Live Free or Die” featured Colbert, who for many years had made the swamps of Georgia his home. My heart broke for him when he returned from an excursion to find his very humble home of several years burned to the ground. Once the shock soaked into his system, Colbert combed the charred remains for items he could use in his daily life and start from the ground up in building another shelter. With a tearful voice, he said he was truly rich – and that he still had more than he really needed. Colbert also shared that the sight of a bustling city had become a foreign one – and one which he could no longer fully comprehend.

 

I don’t remember his exact words, but he said something like this:

 

Everyone is running around – in man-made things and in a hurry to get from place to place without regard for the people and needs around them. He wasn’t condemning how other people live, but rather sharing his heart that it just didn’t make much sense.

 

What do you think? Hey, it’s good food for thought. 

 

Julie Perine can be reached at 304-848-7200, julie@connect-bridgeport.com or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter. More "It's Happening" HERE.