I believe what it boils down to is everyone has their own "rules," for a lack of better wording, for how far they will go to survive. What caused me to look for this thread was someone mentioning TEOTWAWKI. If that alone were to happen, I believe I could survive because I have three reasons to survive: My mom and my sisters. If I were in a situation as Benjamin described, and my reasons to survive were among the dead, G-d may as well take me out.

Jeanette Isabelle

Bbenjammin makes so many good points in his past posts.

I also agree that skinning a live animal is barbaric and not necessary. I've been hunting for many years and my dad always taught me to respect the animals I was hunting. You don't want them to suffer needlessly.

Lobster... well... that is another story... How many people would/would not be able to drop a live lobster in a boiling pot of water?

I really think that in a survival situation, you dig really far down and do things that you wouldn't normally think you could. What would you do to keep yourself alive for your children, family, friends, what-have-you.

If I was with my family in a survival situation and something happened to them and they died, what would I do... Well, eating them wouldn't be my first choice, that is for sure. Obviously you would try to source food in other ways. In the most extreme conditions, no food available, it has been a LONG time since I had anything to eat, possibly I would turn to cannibalism... It really would go down to your core beliefs at this point:

1) Do I no longer have the will to survive since my loved ones are gone.

2) Would my loved ones want me to survive and go on?

Hard questions indeed.

As far as killing other animals, that seems a cake walk compared to the above.

As they say, survival is definitely a state of mind... You either want to survive, or you do not. There is no middle ground.

That is my point. While my sisters and I have stood together in hard times, those bad times were nowhere near as horrible as what the Donner Party went through. While I might be able to survive a Donner Party incident, I would not do it alone nor would I do it for myself. I would survive for and with my sisters or I would not survive at all.

Jeanette Isabelle

I find that to be a poor survival instinct. (Edited out) People die, life goes on. Consider that without memories of your sisters they will truly be gone.


That was harsh, my apologies.

I think that statement is a bit harsh... Look at the documented cases where, in long time married couples, where one dies, the other dies shortly afterwards. This isn't something to just be cast aside, it is a real struggle for people.

However, unless actually placed in a survival situation, you can't be sure how you will react.

The next obvious question would be: Jeanette, if in a non-survival situation, if your sisters got sick and passed away, what would you do? (Please, no harsh tones implied here at all...) I know that I was seriously hurt and affected by the death of my father when I was 17. It was, by no means, easy. Yet I pulled myself together to continue on.

It is all mindset, esp. in survival... Surviving applies to day to day life as well as many other posters have mentioned in the various threads. Surviving is living in this crazy world on a daily basis, be it buckling your seatbelt to help survive a crash, to washing your hands to help avoid spreading germs.

We already lost our dad and Mom couldn't be there for us so all we had were each other. So yes, without them, there is not much of a point.

Are you familiar with the movie, Grave of the Fireflies? When Seita lost everyone in his life, his mom, his sister, his dad, he lost the will to live and he too died.

Jeanette Isabelle

Assuming Mom was still alive, I would have her, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle David, my cousins, congregation and friends. It's my sisters who have been my anchor.

Jeanette Isabelle