Outwit, Outplay, Outlast...but Remember that No Man (or Woman) Is an Island

So...I got up at 5 a.m. today. Why? For the most important reason in the world, of course! To watch the Survivor finale and live reunion show. Who wouldn't be up in the wee hours to watch it? What!? You mean YOU weren't up slurping coffee at some insane hour and rooting for some middle-aged man to hurry and slide down a water slide and carry a bunch of tiles on a machete so he could put some corny tribal-looking neclacke on? What's wrong with you!?!??!

Truthfully, while I am not against TV and have had a few favorite shows over the years, it is very hard for me to fall in love with a TV show. There were the cheesy 70s and 80s sitcoms I loved, like Laverne and Shirley and The Odd Couple. There were the gameshows I loved watching with my mom, like Match Game and Card Sharks. There were the very formula, very predictable mystery shows I adored watching with both my mom and Grandma Miesse, like Matlock and Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. There are my old standbys that I still watch, like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. There have been the ones that made me laugh, like Sledge Hammer and Mad TV and The Office and Derek, and the ones I watched with bated breath, like the early seasons of Law and Order, Quantum Leap, and more modern shows like Lost and Breaking Bad and Helix. I even liked super corny stuff, like The Incredible Hulk (who says they need all that CGI nonsense, because Lou Ferigno in green paint is far scarier? I had a crush on Bill Bixby anyway), Dr. Creep's Shock Theater, Land of the Lost, and Pee-Wee's Playhouse. These days, though, I find myself most attracted to so-called "reality" shows...and I already know they are as scripted as pro wrestling, so you don't have to preach to the choir about that. I am madly in love with Gordon Ramsay, I am fascinated by Intervention and Hoarders and Catfish (due to my intrigue with warped human minds), and I admittedly have even watched several seasons of such fodder as Teen Mom and Divorce Court. Out of all shows of all time, though, there is one I cannot bear to miss, and that is Survivor.

 

I know it is terrible. I know it is fake and scripted and that the players are really just characters, carefully selected and edited by CBS to drum up drama. I know it is some sort of sick coliseum-age thinking for me to sit there hoping they'll bicker and argue or that someone will break his leg in an Immunity Challenge or that the girls in skimpy bikinis will get bitten by something poisonous and be quickly helicoptered off the show and out of my misery. I know I should not get a thrill when the final Tribal Council comes and one human being berates and insults another. But what can I say? Out of 29 seasons of the show over the last 15 years, I have only missed one. Even now, when my sucky Dish Network (which, by the way, I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend to ANYONE) won't pick up any local channels at all, I find a way to watch new Survivor episodes, and when I do, it is a rare sixty minutes of absolute concentration for me. I'm usually pretty ADHD, easily distracted and multitasking, but when Survivor is on, I am in tune, watching every moment and listening to every well-crafted word and mumble of every campfire conversation or solo interview. My daughter bought me a Survivor buff for Christmas last year, and I actually bawled over it. To this day, it is, perhaps one of the greatest Christmas presents I've ever gotten! Heck, I even named this blog after the show, and my Jeff Propst autograph is the favorite of my collection.

So, bright and early this morning, I was up to watch the two-hour finale and the reunion show of Survivor: Worlds Apart, and when I did, I actually cried. Pathetically, it is not the first time I have cried during Survivor, but it usually has more to do with some super-cute Jungle Boy getting voted off way too early. This time, I cried when the contestants' families came to visit them. I felt stupid for sitting there in front of my computer crying and making clouds in my coffee over some well-scripted emotional reunion, but then I thought about it, and I realized there is good reason. Even CBS realizes it. Even if our goal is to outwit, outplay, and outlast in life, we cannot do so without other people.

On Survivor, the players start off in teams. Those teams eventually are merged into other teams or forced to compete indivudally, and the object is to beat everyone else. There is one sole survivor, but to earn that title, a person must use the others, and ultimately, some of those others will decide who is worthy to receive the prize out of the last two or three standing. Not one person sitting there at the end gets there without the others, nor can they win without the votes of the very people they competed with, used, aligned with, or stepped on to get there. When their relatives come to visit on that always-emotional episode, they are rejuvenated and ready to give it their all. Why? Because in real life, as well as on some tacky "reality" competition show, we all need people.

To be honest, I do not have a lot of people in my life right now. My marriage has been over for a while now, and I'm actually looking forward to tying up those loose ends, but I'm also glad for the good moments we did have and even some of the bad ones, because I learned from it all. The circles of friends I've had in life have, for the most part, gone down separate paths, as life has taken us different directions, with different goals. The person I'd consider my best friend is an ocean away, someone I will likely never meet, and I'm a bit socially shy (and quite busy with work and such), so I  don't really hang out with anyone now. I adore my family but do not see many of them like we did when we were little, living in that happy little bubble of cousin-hood. But the people I have known in life, the people I am still close to now, and the people I truly believe God will send into my life in the future have been instrumental in making me who I am today. Not everyone we meet is good for us, and certainly there are those who are, but every person we get to know impacts us in some way or another. Hopefully, we all learn something from each other, good or bad. I won't break into Bette Midler here, but along the way, someone--or many someones, actually--provides the wind beneath our wings. Sometimes that wind is encouragement or love or friendship. Sometimes that wind is actually fury or mistakes that force us to learn hard lessons that will, hopefully, make us better people with stronger relationships in the future.

Now and again, we may have to vote someone off the island, but the point is this: We all need people if we're going to outwit, outplay, and outlast in life, and I'm so thankful for the people I have had to chance to know and learn from, good and bad--especially for those who have stuck around, like good friends, family, mentors, co-workers, and clients. If you're reading this, you may very well be one of those people, and I'm grateful that you are or have been a part of my life!