Skills of survival

We had some spirited discussions this evening at book club. Life of Pi was a hard book to get into, but had some deeper truth to it. It definitely helped to clarify our befuddled thoughts through discussion. One of the themes we touched on in the book has to do with survival. As humans we adapt and change to survive. We are capable of being so resourceful or so destructive if we are pushed to our limits.

Kind of related to survival, I thought about skills we acquire in life. Some people have more skills than others, from Napoleon Dynamite to Martha Stewart to Albert Einstein. We all have a certain level of skills. I tend to think that it's important to spread your skills out; to learn as much as you can about a lot of different things. I guess this makes me feel more secure in case of an emergency that may require some sort of obscure knowledge or ability. I like to be prepared. But in reality, in this day and age, how important is it to know how to build a fire, sew your own clothes, make kimchi, do repairs/maintenance around the house, or even do taxes? For most of these tasks there are cheaper or easier alternatives to doing it yourself. Plus, time is money, is it not?

The skills that were so prized decades ago are almost obsolete today. Is it better just focus on one or a few skills and excel at those? If I were deserted on a boat with a Bengal tiger, I would need all the skills of survival: navigation, fishing, taming a wild tiger, and many other basics. To survive today, you almost need to focus your skills in a few areas. This is what it takes to get a job and provide for your family; not all that hunter-gatherer Colonial Pilgrim stuff. (Kind of along the same vein, since men no longer have to hunt to survive, is there a reason why some men still feel a need to be so bionically buff, to the point of taking steroids?) Everything is being outsourced, from household chores to the technology we buy. Are we losing the ability to make anything from scratch? It's gotten to the point that when someone makes something by hand, it's no longer considered work. It's now called "arts and crafts."

I would like to pass on a lot of different skills to my children. I don't just want them to be good at their careers and bring home money. There are still those things that can't be done for you. Enduring the discipline required to play a musical instrument, feeling the thrill of winning in a sport, camping in the wilderness and being one with nature, experiencing foreign cultures and lands, and being a living testament to God's Love... Priceless.