The [1] Discovery Channel has some pretty interesting shows. Several days ago, I happened to catch the popular [2] Man Vs. Wild TV series (they were running an all day marathon of the documentary).

The documentary is about [3] Bear Grylls, an adventurer who served three years with the Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the British arm, who strands himself in remote locations across the world to demonstrate localized survival techniques.

Eating grubs, slugs, turtles, baby crocodiles, dead animals, making beds out of the tropical plants, special ways to find your bearing in a remote place, pointing special trees/plants that make natural antiseptics are some of the things the show documents. He certainly makes me wonder how I would survive if I was stranded in a remote location. Although there is always a question of how much of this is played out and how much is not, I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt as it is much more of a documentary styled program than a fake reality show (in the Survivor mold). I do have to wonder how in the world the cameraman runs about chasing after Bear Grylls and still be safe enough to get excellent film footage. The camera angles and closeness the cameraman manages to capture is unreal.

It is interesting to hear what he said when asked what he would take with him if he was ever stranded in a remote location.

“Flint and striker, so I can light a fire however tough it gets — lifts my spirit always and has often saved my bacon! My Christian faith: high mountains and my time in the military taught me that it takes a proud man to say he needs nothing, and I need my faith. And, finally, a laminated picture of my family tucked inside my shoe.”

For me, I’ll probably settle with a knife, lighter and a picture of my family too. Fire lets me cook things and keep away animals and insects, the knife to cut through stuff or cut up food. The picture of my family could turn out to be the most important part of the surviving as it gives you hope. Hope and faith gives you the will to fight on and survive.

I believe we can also learn a little from Bear on his persistence to overcome difficult situations. He says, “it is OK to be scared — what matters is keeping going, hour after hour, day after day, night after night… the difficult journey is ultimately about how much you want it and how much cold and discomfort you can put up with.”

Coming from a man that broke his back in three places and several years later overcame the odds to become the youngest British climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest and come down alive, those are pretty powerful words to live by. Certainly a born survivor.

I would like to think that we have a little of [3] Bear Grylls in all of us.

What would you take (if you were stranded in a remote place)?