If you couldn't outwit and kill 12 foot lizards by age 19 you're a pansy compared to these three.
Being a Curmudgeon sounds like a glass is half full endeavor but it doesn’t have to be. It’s true that the limp flaccid weak pathetic whining of society’s misfits (and increasingly it’s majority) annoys and depresses me but today’s abundance of hyperdependent adult children is just half of the equation. Humans aren’t inherently helpless sheep and the other half of the equation is just how awesome we can (and should!) be. When I stumble across news of impressive people excelling at whatever they freely choose to do it’s a moment worth sharing.
The picture above (click photo for link) is an example. Why? Because I hate alligators? Of course not. It’s because the three young men there did something a lot of us wouldn’t be able to accomplish. It wasn’t without risk. They needed skill, knowledge of the environment, perseverance, and balls of steel. (In references to “balls of steel” I encourage you to read the story. Being a northerner I’ve never gone alligator hunting but it sounds a lot more up close and personal than shooting a deer with a scoped rifle.) They did it of their own volition. They did it with their own resources. They did it on their own time. And most importantly they did it for fun. These three did not sit around waiting for their high school guidance counselor to give them a pat on the back and the usual bullshit story that all kids are above average just for showing up. These three got in their boat and went hunting for the biggest carnivore they could find. How tough were you when you were 19? How tough are you now?
I like the romantic idea that there are people still reasserting our species rightful role as the toughest sons a bitches on planet Earth. Well done men.
And yeah, it’s an alligator and not a dinosaur but they’re pretty close. I’m pretty sure if there were T-Rexes running around a jungle somewhere the Sierra Club elite would be putting them on colorful posters hung on city cubicle walls while these three would be out there trying to hunt one down and BBQ it!
My next entry into the list of “The Unstoppable” is these three young men who could have been sitting on their ass playing Nintendo and instead went hunting for dinosaurs. Excellent work.