So there has been some recent news about survival, survivalists, survival nuts, etc. etc. Dan Bacon and I discussed this for a while and thought it might be a good idea to write a piece on my reasons for being a survival instructor. I would like to first make sure that we all know that I do not hate the government, as we often see in these news articles about survivalists.
My interest in survival training, and my hope for you and your family, is to become more self-reliant. I both rely on my job, the government, my family, and myself to provide me with certain amounts of security and comfort. What I want to do as a survival instructor, and what Dan has often said he wants to do through this website, is to help increase the last portion of the last sentence. The one where we as individuals and families help provide more to our security and comfort.
You will often hear me say at classes that the survival skills that I teach, most everyone had 150-200 years ago. Modern technology has made us dependent upon others for shelter, water and food. Don’t get me wrong like many of you, I too, enjoy the comforts of a modern home with air-conditioning and heat, running water, the list goes on. However, I do challenge myself on a regular basis with short and longer-term trips to the wilderness, as we all should. This is in addition to the many days, weeks and months I have spent in the field practicing skills. I am responsible for teaching others these skills, therefore I want to have lived many of these things that I teach.
That is where the idea of self-reliance comes in for me. We want to teach you and your family how much fun and rewarding it is to make a shelter from natural and modern materials, how to cleanse your own water, gather your own salad from your yard. These things can certainly be harder than going to grocery and picking a few items up. However, by doing so you have taken a huge step towards providing for your family.
From a nature awareness perspective, survival training is an excellent way to go about learning about the things that surround us. For if you understand your own needs, then you understand the needs of the animals around you. You leave tracks, they leave tracks. You have vocalizations to communicate different needs, so do they. The animals that surround us can tell us alot about the resources available to us.
So are you prepping or paranoid? I am prepping. For what exactly, I do not have a clue. I am prepping though, today, everyday to be more self-reliant. That in and of itself, is incredibly rewarding.
