More from: "Out of the Mouth of Seniors:"
Tonight...it is my turn to eat humble pie. The whole pie.
So Kathy and I have been watching "Alone" on Netflix. Four Episodes, so far, and man the survival skills these folks have...well, they are elite level. And they are completely alone. Most of us never truly experience that. Even alone we are in a city or apartment, or unit. We might not interact with our neighbors, or the general public, but we aren't truly alone, and away from all of Civilization. Even hunters and fisherman, are only out in the woods for several hours ...alone. Then it is back to the old Ford 150 and back home.
So when they say "Alone"... they mean it. I readily admit I have no survival skills at all. I could sleep in a potato field ...starving, and not even know that one of my favorite foods is just a foot below me.
So why do I have to eat humble pie? I just don't have those skills. This late in life, I am not going to acquire them either. So why the post?
Because I had the wool lifted over my own eyes.
I was talking with one of my friends who grew up in Northern Wisconsin. He can hunt, fish, trap, and butcher any known animal. He also knows all about which plants are food, which are medicine, and which are poisonous. As long as he is in a forest. Put him in a jungle environment...and he would have to make some adjustments ...and as he says: "The varmints are different and the snakes are bigger."
So I was chatting with him earlier today. And bragging about the fact that I do not know how to hunt, fish, trap, skin an animal....I am bereft of any survival skills at all. The Eskimo's would have asked me to kindly walk out onto the ice flow ages ago. But this time he didn't laugh.
In fact, this is what he said:
"Kevin, do you remember once telling me that a guy bragged to you about never having read a book since he graduated from High School?"
"Yes. I remember that."
"Do you remember how aghast and dumbfounded you were by him boldly bragging about not having read a book?"
"Yes. I couldn't imagine being proud of that."
He paused over the phone.
"Well, that is how I felt when you first told me you have never hunted. Fished once, caught one tiny bluegill couldn't kill it, and never fished again. For me, and my brother (who was with us when I was bragging about having no outdoor skills at all) that was the equivalent of the guy telling you..."I never read a book!"
My brother thought you were kidding. When I told him you were not. He said:
"How can somebody so smart...be so stupid?"
And you know what...tonight was the first night I realized what I might look like to a Hunter, or Fisherman. Never mind the survivalists, or off Grid populations.
I just never saw it from their side before. Not in 74 years. Because I was lucky enough to live in the 20th Century...and with those conveniences. I had no idea how truly unprepared I am for things to go South.
Yeah, I know us autistics get accused of not having empathy...which isn't true by the way...we have an abundance of it, we just don't recognize it in others. Just like I never thought about what my lack of skills looked like to someone who has those skills.
I was lucky enough in my life, to never need those skills. But that doesn't excuse how I belittled ...that's not the right word, unaware is a better word- of how many people have those skills ...and have honed them.
So it was a night of humble pie for me. My meat comes wrapped in cellophane, and my chicken from the grocery store. And bacon is already sliced when it gets to my table. And thank God for the folks who know how to do that. So us city slickers can joke about hunting. Sheesh. I am an idiot...sometimes.