Indigenous Ability

How’s this for a full life? ·         Hugh Glass, if you saw the film The Revenant , or read the book by Michael Punke or were already familiar with this mountain man who survived a tussle with a bear to crawl an injured 300 miles through hostile territory and still put more years in front of him. ·         Pre-Legendary Bear Attack he… ·         Was a sailor who was captured by Jean the “Gentleman Pirate of Barataria” Lafitte and forced to become a pirate for a spell. ·         He and a shipmate eventually jumped ship off the coast of Texas and swam to shore. ·         End of the adventure? Not quite. ·         The two ex-pirates were then captured by the Pawnee. They endured well enough to be adopted by the tribe where Glass accrued much of his survival...

As the pandemic lockdown whiles on I have offered in dribs and drabs a few bits of functional knot-tying or rope/line-handling. These little mini-asides are meant to be eye-trivia for the bored or possible spurs to, “ Hell, I got time on my hands I’ll give this tip a go .” At the top end, there may even be, “ WTF! I really needed that tip when…oh, I’ll be ready next time.” Knot-tying, rope-handling, marlinspike seamanship, whatever you want to call the practice is, to my mind, more than just “That Old Man really likes tying knots.” [BTW-I do.] It serves a dual functional purpose to my mind. The First Purpose: The Convincing Argument Broad Based Survival & Functional Utility Able use of rope, cordage, lines, vines et cetera, next to the ability to build the variety of useful fires is THE most universal skill in many survival, extreme sport, outdoor domains. I capitalized the THE for factual emphasis, not mere preference. Where do we see the absolute...

[For the mindset behind the following see Part 1 .] The car plunges through the guard rail into the river below… The recreational boat sinks from beneath you at 2AM… The bridge long overdue for inspection fails beneath you… The proverbial “100-year flood” occurs and that formerly high and dry street becomes a strictured fast-water nozzle strong enough to sweep cars and humans… The non-swimming loved one is thrashing and flailing mid-water… Your “unsinkable” luxury liner sinks beneath as you sip brandy in the smoking-room… The ability to swim and maneuver well in water, or as the old-timers called it, being possessed of good watermanship, is of ultimate importance at these times. But…again we often fail to consider that even if we possess the vital skill of swimming, like all other endeavors, it is subject to state-dependent learning. That is, if we learn our combat skills in a nice, calm, no-worries zone that is in no way reflective of th...

Sometimes the misfortune of others provides hearty fodder for reflection in those of us in more fortunate circumstances. Wisdom that we can use to avoid our own calamities, or sage signage as to how to comport our own selves when neck deep in treacherous waters. In 1896, author and journalist Stephen Crane, recived a commission to be a war correspondent. He was directed to ship to Cuba to cover the hostilities there. His transport ship the SS Commodore sank en route and he and a handful of others were left to chance in a wooden dinghy. Once ashore he turned this harrowing and uncertain experience into a story, “ The Open Boat ,” that is deeply infused with trenchant insight. Often when we hear of another’s plight or dire circumstance, we imagine ourselves in that same predicament and begin the hypothetical role-playing deciding what we would or would not do. The very basis of my main line of work, preparing the self and others for conflict is just this sort of hypothetic...