Although this would be a very appropriate title as my boys play outside most of the time hunting creatures and seeking adventure and imaginary enemies (LOL), I am actually talking about the show on the Discovery Channel. Survival shows are all the rage in our home. The Discovery Channel has plenty of them throughout their family of channels (mainly on The Discovery Channel and Discovery Kids), primarily on Friday and Saturday nights.
We only get satellite service where we live and that means we have to watch many shows 3 hours early or 3 hours late – even though we’re pacific time, we get many channels on EST. Believe it or not, this can actually be a good thing in our boys’ opinion since it gives them more opportunities to catch up on the latest episodes.
Man vs. Wild is always the favorite around here though they have just
discovered another show called The Alaska Experiment. It is funny to
me how some of these “similar” survival shows can be so different. Man
vs. Wild is all about the adventure and shock factor whereas Sirwhinerman Survivorman is more about the endless days and nights and all the drama.
For Heaven’s sake, how many crazy things can one man (ie: Bear Grylls) do, eat and see in one episode? For instance, Friday night there was a new episode of him in Zambia and here’s a run down of the “adventure”:
Things He Did:
~ Dropped off into raging river from a helicopter (on a body board no
less), climbed at least two slippery sheer cliffs (called one of them
“irresistible” LOL)
~ Poor man, I’ll list the things he ate in a moment, but the last
“lovelies” that he consumed apparently sent his body over the proverbial
edge because he spent much of the rest of the show miserable with
diarrhea.
~ Built a pyramid fire to signal the helicopter that was picking him up
~ Exited the area by hopping onto the landing gear of the helicopter and hanging on as it carried him out heehee.
What He Ate:
~ Catfish (caught amidst Hippos and Crocodiles)
~ Grubs – not just any grubs either one of them was ginormous, but I’ll spare you the GORY details.
~ A Bullfrog – can I just say EWWWW! It truly was nasty!
~ “Chargrilled brightly colored worms” – he got sick after eating these so they obviously should have been avoided.
~ Because of his poor stomach he filtered some of the local water and made a charcoal tea to soothe it.
Things He Saw:
~ Hippos
~ Crocodiles
~ Elephants – this was TRULY AMAZING there was a herd of over 80 elephants right in front of him!
~ Leopard prints and kill
~ Hyena prints
~ Many Many Critters ‘n such
There you have the show (can I emphasize here again this was ONE EPISODE) in a nutshell. Sometimes I just feel like saying “holy cow man you are a little nuts” even if he DOES have a fully equipped camera crew with him. But I love his truly genuine regard, appreciation and amazement at the beauty around him throughout his “adventures”. But I’m also always hanging on to the edge of my seat and covering my eyes.
For the boys it’s all about the gross things he eats. Believe it or
not they actually do have their limits, on one episode he ate a tree
frog and that was completely over the top in The Salesman’s opinion, but
they love seeing him do crazy things and truly enjoy getting grossed
out by his “food”. If you’re looking for enough drama for even a
teenage girl, watch Sir-whiner-man
Survivorman. I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate some of the
information and tips that he shares, but he stays in the same place
night after night, monologuing about each and every detail about
everything around him and what he’s doing and the show is a little like
this sentence, going on and on instead of really getting anything done.
I have to say though that these men are probably living the dream of every (almost) little boy. Life is full of reality each and every day even for children, so it is truly amazing that “reality” shows (we all know that much of what happens on them is edited and staged for entertainment value, but still …) can put a whole new twist on said “reality”.
What if we looked at our lives through the eyes of a reality show? We’d see the adventure and take it – we’d notice the incredibly amazing beauty around us and be so thankful for the opportunity – we’d try new things that may not turn out very well, but we tried them anyway and lived to tell the tale. I think we’d appreciate everyday life and the blessings we’ve been given just a little bit more.
So today I’m wishing you all a little adventure, maybe even a little drama. A renewed outlook and amazement at the beauty around you – blog about it, turn your life into a reality show for one day and see if your perspective changes just a little.