I have finished my second of the twenty-two books on my New Year's Resolution list, the twenty-two books I own but have not yet read. This second book was short, maybe two hours of solid reading. Guts by Gary Paulsen details some of the experiences Mr. Paulsen had that led to and ultimately shaped Hatchet especially, but also Brian's Winter and The River.
Much of it is about hunting, trial-and-error, the major role hunting played in Mr. Paulsen's life from a young age and other basic challenges of wilderness survival. More than once he was attacked by a moose. He was bitten by rattlesnakes, stalked by mountain lions, threatened by bears, even witnessed a four-year old boy killed by a white-tale buck in a national park.
He was in two plane accidents; neither was ultimately a crash, but both could have killed him and the pilot. He learned to fly a plane. For several years he served as an emergency response person, often the only one. He witnessed many heart attacks, including the one that was morphed into the pilot's death in Hatchet. As of 2001, Mr. Paulsen had run two Iditarods.
Put simply, Mr. Paulsen has survived what many can not even imagine. He has eaten what we take for granted. I say "we" because, if one has internet, one has likely never known true, deep hunger.
When all is said and done, that is what I find most fascinating, is not what he has eaten, but the depth of survival instinct. I know how strong it is. More than once I was on the brink of defying it. Each time one of two things happened: either the subconscious desire to live was strong enough or, before it got to that point, I found something, or someone, to live for when I didn't want to live for myself.
I am currently a vegetarian. I don't eat meat, mostly because I don't much like the taste. It also reminds me of human flesh. I hadn't thought much about from where meat came. I grew up in a town where a good percentage of people hunted. I had seen deer strung up to drain in my garage. I had fished, gutting my catches. I never thought meat magically appeared in shop coolers. Growing up in a first world country, though, most people are separated from the source, not just physically, but mentally.
Last winter, though, I trained to be an EMR or Emergency Medical Responder so I could help run on ambulances. At one point in the training, I looked through some of the textbooks for higher levels of ambulance training. Some of the pictures in those books are incredible, to the point where one can't imagine a situation where whatever injury could even be possible; in practice, I never saw anything bloody. Some of those pictures, though, stuck with me.
I had been playing with the idea of becoming a vegetarian for a year or two. When I saw that to the eye, there is very little physical difference between human flesh and any red meat. As I mentioned, I didn't really like meat. It was pretty easy for me to give up meat. It was funny how quickly I lost the taste for it. At first, I just quite red meat, then poultry and fish. About a month after I had essentially quit all meat, my mom cooked salmon. Salmon had always been my favorite. I chose to try a bit. It was utterly unappealing; I think I actually gagged.
The point of the drawn out I-am-a-vegetarian-and-here's-why is, if it came down to survival or eating meat, I know I would choose meat. Survival is the single greatest instinct in any animal, and at the most simplistic definition, that is what humans are: animals.
If and when the day comes that the society in the U.S. crumbles, many thousands, millions, even, of people will starve. People in cities have almost no resources if food shipments fail. They don't know how to hunt, to fish, to produce plants or butcher animals. But they will fight to survive.
Other than the simple observation that plants are fascinating, the reason I am most looking forward to taking a botany course is to learn about edible plants. If the day comes when our society is forced to revert to hunting and gathering, a knowledge of edible plants would at least buy me time to learn to hunt and reacquaint myself with fishing.
In short, I liked the book, which is no surprise since I loved Hatchet when I was younger and just re-read it two months ago.
For now, though, I am able to be a vegetarian by choice and the most dangerous thing I have encountered recently was an angry girlfriend who thought I wanted her boyfriend because I texted him for ten minutes.
Cheers,
-Genni
No comments:
Post a Comment