When we study real events and the mindset of the people who survive (and those who didn’t), we can actually pull out useful information and discover stuff that is still relevant today! These aren’t just things that would be important in an emergency in the past. The wisdom we glean is very relatable to a wilderness emergency in modern times. In the Hugh Glass story, for example, our protagonist shows us the true power of intestinal fortitude. This fellow was mauled by a bear. His trapping party not only left him for dead, they buried him alive! I can’t imagine what it would be like to crawl out of my own grave, but this guy found out the hard way. He went on to survive grievous wounds and trek (without his equipment) for several weeks until he found a settlement. And while Mr. Glass was motivated by something very dark (murderous revenge), we can still see the merit of harnessing your will to survive and seeing it through to the end.

So what if we found ourselves in a dire situation? Maybe not as bad as Hugh Glass, but the odds were still stacked heavily against our survival. Couldn’t we harness that same drive to stay alive and fight our way back to civilization? If we wanted to see our friends and loved ones again – and we wanted it bad enough – couldn’t that give us an inner strength that would rival Glass’ desire for revenge? I think we could, and this is just one way that history shows us how to stay alive. So hit the library, crack open some books, and start pulling out pearls of wisdom. You never know when you might just need them.