Alone

I've been watching the show "Alone" - ten survivalists are dropped in separate locations around a common remote area to survive off the land for as long as possible until they tap out. The one left standing wins $500,000. Not enough in my mind, but then I'm not likely to camp in my own backyard with access to indoor plumbing, much less the Alaskan wilderness where 35 degrees below 0 is typical and sharing space with grizzly bears is a given.

The contestants are all skilled adventurers who build their own timber structures often using only an ax and some string. They know what berries and bark are safe to eat, how to create animal traps using sticks and rocks, and what their caloric output is for each task so they don't push themselves to exhaustion. These are impressive feats to be sure. But while you'd think most of them call it quits because they are injured or sick or struggling to find food, that isn't the case. Most of them go home because they are, in fact, lonely. Being alone, as the title suggests, is the breakpoint. 

Watching this always gets me thinking - could I withstand the aloneness? No question I could NOT handle the elements part, but could I be cut off from the world? Like camping but inside my house with a stocked kitchen and no power. For months. The longest recorded time on the show was in Season 7 - 100 days. Think New Year's Day to Easter. I think I could do it!

This would be the criteria by which I think I could if I tried. 

1. If I needed immediate life-saving help, there would be a way to contact someone.
2. If my daughter, family members, or close friends, had to reach me for an emergency, there would be a way that they could.
3. I would live in the house I have now with all the current items in it minus electronics.
4. I would have a month's supply of food after which I'd have to start being creative.
5. The house would have no electricity for heating, cooking, or lighting. I would have access to my gas stove and wood fireplace.
6. I would have no access to electronic devices including my phone, laptop, TV, wifi, recording devices, etc. 
7. No car. No access to any vehicle.
8. I would have access to pens, paper, notebooks, stacks of books, playing cards, board games, puzzles, and art supplies. 
9. I would have access to the outside but there would be no residents, residential or business buildings, or infrastructure of any sort within a 100 mile radius. My house and all its contents, but out in nowhere. 
10. And no one around to talk to or communicate with. They are beyond the 100 miles going on with their lives with access to food and electronics and vehicles and heat and each other.

And I think that the last one may be the kicker. It's not enough to survive alone with no power and a dwindling supply of food. It's that the rest of the world is out there living their lives without you. So it's not being alone or missing your family and friends. It's FOMO - fear of missing out! 

I bet if you were to track the show from the start of its run, and record the moment each contestant says something like "today is my son's birthday" or "today is my wedding anniversary", I'd be willing to bet that in less than a week, that person calls it quits because they want to go home. Because they come to this realization that living in the woods alone even for a cash prize doesn't outweigh the moments in a life missed. But isn't that what they signed up for? Did they not prepare for this part when they were carbo-loading and sharpening their knives? 

Getting back to my proposal, I still think I could do it. In fact, I may try. Come winter I'm going to alert my nearest and dearest that I am going off the grid. Let's start with a week and go from there. You know what, let's start with a day with my phone turned off and see where that takes me.