Being a Survivor

Many seasons ago, television changed when Survivor entered and helped pave the way for all these "reality" shows.  For the first few seasons, I was a die-hard Survivor watcher but after some time I faded to a casual watcher, only catching an episode when nothing else on tv caught my fancy.  Some seasons I just couldn't get into any of the players and skipped it altogether. 

Tonight begins a new season of Survivor.  The players are in Nicaragua and it's Redemption Island and for two past players it's another shot of surviving 39 days at camp and trying to take the prize!  The all-time player, Boston Rob, who you love or hate...not much middle ground; and Russell, who I think everyone just hates :).  I'm gonna watch the show tonight and see how it "feels" before making a commitment.

One thing that has perplexed me over and over again, is the attire some of the women players show up in to go live on an island primitive style.  Why would I choose to wear a low-cut dress, jewerly and heals?  Makes no sense to me unless your only game play to to play the female sex object card.  But honestly you only have a limited amount of clothing and supplies and I would think wasting even one article of clothing from the beginning is not playing the game smart. 

Isn't life kinda like the Real Life Reality Survivor? There are the players you love; the ones you hate; you show up in the wrong clothes totally unprepared.  Sometimes you are left out in the cold (or heat) with nothing to protect you - you are exposed to all the elements.  You need to trust someone but may not know who.  Perhaps you are hungry for something (either food or information) and you only have the bare minimum for long periods of time.  You tire, you become grumpy, you are scared, you search, you "play the game" the best you can and still come up short over and over.  Somehow some succeed, some fail, but what are some of the things that keep the strong  in the game? 

Teamwork.  Maybe our real life survivor team is our family, friends, co-workers, schoolmates; whoever they are we need to work together with them on the common goals that will help all of us.  If we work against any of the people in any of the individuals teams we have how can the outcome be anything but good?  Sure in the end things may end in the expected manner, but if people aren't happy getting there, was it really a success or was it "just the way it is"?

Patience.  Perhaps in real life survivor if we learned to sit back, access a situation, see problems or opportunities from many different angles or perspectives maybe we could make better decisions.  How many times do we speak or act before we really know what's going on?  Maybe we are being 'romanced' by someone who is a good talker but the words they speak are lies or just uninformed?  Is there something that is sparkly or shiny and we are lulled into a sense of seeing a thing that looks good but it's really just a facade?


Well this season looks like it could prove interesting, I think I am in!  I think we'll be revisiting this topic of real life survivor again!