Alone

I’ve been watching the show Alone lately.

The chosen contestants get dropped on a remote land, alone, and their only job (through season 2, at least) is to survive. They build shelters and fires, navigate families of bears, and gather water (often having to boil it to make it drinkable). For everyone, though, the thing they struggle with the most is being alone.

It’s not just that they miss their loved ones. They miss human interaction. They miss connection.

It’s no wonder that I’ve fallen so hard for a show like this during a time of forced separation and isolation. I thought about how we, in a space of social distancing and limited human connection, are affected by this.

As the contestant tap out, one by one, and make their way to the rescue boat, they talk about missing the land and home they’ve built, despite being ready to leave. They’ve found comfort in the discomfort, and in the deep introspective connection of who they are after everything has been stripped away.

I wonder, does it feel overwhelming to see people all of a sudden, to have conversations, to be so disconnected from the land after living off it? And how will we feel when we can hug again? Because as much as we want to hug other humans, won’t it also be strange?

Will it be strange to go back to a routine, to step out of the cocoon we’re been fighting to expand past? I don’t have the answer, and we will find out in time, but I do wonder, what we will feel like in the after part of this space?