SAMANTHA ELLEY reflects on what the TV series ‘Alone’ has shown her about being grateful for the food on our table…
Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia
Thanking God before a meal. PICTURE: SeventyFour/Shutterstock
“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” – I Timothy 4:4
The latest television series obsession in our household is the reality program Alone.
“The one thing that has struck me with the majority of contestants who are up for a cash prize if they are the last to stay out in the wild, is how thankful they are for the food they manage to fish and hunt.”
This is where 10 people go into the wild, with only a safety kit, clothes, a phone to ‘tap out’ and 10 items of their choice to help them survive.
They have to build their own accommodation, find their own water and food and cope with the aloneness.
Australia had its first series earlier this year, but America’s series has been going for nearly 10 years.
The one thing that has struck me with the majority of contestants who are up for a cash prize if they are the last to stay out in the wild, is how thankful they are for the food they manage to fish and hunt.
Sometimes, just sometimes, they actually thank God for their food. Mostly they thank the creature they have just acquired, usually after great difficulty. Either way, their ‘grace’ is heartfelt.
They experience an intense thanksgiving, sometimes not felt on tables of easy abundance, where grace is rattled off at a speed to make Usain Bolt envious, and to ensure the food is still hot when consumed.
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There are no leftovers on Alone.
One contestant even ate the teeth and nails of a mouse he caught. He rejected nothing as he knew it was probably the last piece of protein he was going to have unless he tapped out.
Contestants ate seaweed, berries, grass, roots, insects and even tree bark at one stage, especially if fish and other proteins were in short supply.
While mass food production, processing and delivery ensure none of us should go hungry; it serves us well to remember who created all of the items we consume, in the first place.
With this in mind it has helped me learn to be more intentional when we say grace at the meal table and not to be fussy about what is put in front of us.
