Live free or die.

We watched the first episode of that National Geographic series "Live Free or Die," about 4 men and 1 woman — the woman is paired with one of the men — who live under quite primitive conditions, not in some "Survivor"-like competition, but as their chosen approach to life — presumably genuinely chosen, though the cameras are there too, so there's an untold meta-story about why, having retreated from civilization, they are inviting the world into their secluded place. Perhaps the answer for each of the 4 men and the woman is different. I assume that none of them are seriously psychologically disordered, that they are weird enough to be entertaining but not so weird as to distract us with worries that National Geographic is exploiting them.

You can watch the episode at the link. You'll see that one man seems to be on a post-divorce rampage. He had a big house and some sort of financial consulting job, but whatever that ex-wife did to him, his reaction has been to go rogue on some island in a swamp and live on trapped beaver (metaphor alert) — selling the pelts and eating the meat. Another man, named Thorn, seems closest to being the wilderness equivalent of an urban street person, and he's the only one who doesn't get his meat, after trudging around all day looking for a squirrel to shoot with an arrow. He ends up eating rice and lentils, which is not what he wants. He needs meat. A third man is out in a very dry part of California hoping to catch a pack rat with a cartoonish-looking trap that drops a big rock on the little beast. He's exultant when he finds his "flat rat," and he roasts it over the fire, scraping the fur and skin off as it chars, and then he nibbles away at it, tail and all. It's delicious, we're told.

But my favorite guy is the one who has a woman, because it's a lot more of a challenge to live under primitive conditions — no electricity, no running water, etc. — when you've got not just your body and mind to preserve but a relationship. And what woman would humor what man this much? The life is much harder than just working in town at a little minimum-wage job and economizing like mad. And what meat! These two cook and eat a bobcat, found dead and in a state of rigor mortis by the side of the road. I mean, who eats cat in the first place? I know people eat roadkill, but isn't that usually something they know just got hit, not something that's been lying around long enough to have rigor mortis? Here's the woman, snuggling in the bobcat fur:



I found an interview with this couple — Tony and Amelia — and they talk about why they chose to do the show. Tony seems to come at it from an abstract, intellectual direction: He went to college and took courses in environmental studies, then determined that he wanted to live off the land and spend no money on food. He speaks of "harvest[ing] rain water" and "fell[ing] wood in winter without killing it."

Amelia, on the other hand, attributes her interest in living like this to her upbringing on a farm. "After living on dad’s farm then a few other places unusual; a small homestead in Nashville where I had chickens and an organic garden, I met Tony."

About doing the show, Amelia says she wants "to share" and "inspire people to live in a way that they will feel more satisfied with their life, and bring more happiness to our world." Tony is more ideological: "I have ideas in my head I want the world to hear." But he also seems more laid back: "I want to encourage people to do what they want to do. To live like me or not. Just to be happy and free. If you want to be a painter or a space shuttle engineer – just do it. We are not bound by the expectations of society."