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“Addictions can be very, very bad but addiction itself is not bad.
It’s a case of what you’re addicted to.
You better live each day like it’s your last, ‘cos one day you’re going to be right”.
Ray Charles.
Link tip a friend
Abraham Maslow:
Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs Motivational model and one of the key elements of the theory is the hierarchy of basic needs.
Maslow recognized that there are a number of different motivating forces or needs, that influence human behaviour and he created the hierarchy of needs to understand how these different forces worked in relation to each other.
For example, if at some time someone is influenced by both a need for food and a need for safety and security, which of these two needs would have the greatest influence on the person's behaviour? Maslow wanted to explain how a person would respond in such a situation and also to understand how people came to be influenced by more complex, "higher" needs.
The Marmot 3 in 1 jacket:
This is a great piece of gear and in cold conditions, anyone would be grateful to own it; just have a look at some of its features and many of them are even trademarked!
Really? Trademarked?
Yeah, stuff like MemBrain® and PitZips® and Angel-Wing Movement™ and SpiraFil®
And the list doesn’t stop there, here’s more …..
This is a waterproof, breathable 3-in-1 jacket with an insulating and removable liner and taped seams and removable storm hood and brushed polyester tricot collar and stash pockets and hand-warmer pockets and chest pockets and zip sleeve pockets and goggles pockets and electronics pockets and a couple of pockets that no-one even knows what they’re for!
And it’s only $329 which is probably a pretty contemporary price for such a jacket, especially if you’re comparing it to building the Super Proton Synchrotron and Hadron Collider. See link.
George Dobson:
On August the 16th 2009, Australian tourist George Dobson was in India when he tripped on a mountain track while hiking and fell 15 metres.
He was then taken to hospital in Dehradun where he remained in intensive care for 5 days and was found to have a C4 spinal injury which had caused his quadriplegia.
On August 22 he was transported to the “Max Super Specialty Hospital” in New Delhi.
George had no travel insurance, no medical insurance and no evacuation insurance.
George’s wife Therese wrote: "I was just completely lost. I didn't know what to do or where to turn but my local parliamentarian Kirsten Livermore could not have been more helpful, as were the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Australian High Commission in India; they’ve all been marvellous".
At this point Mrs Dobson still had the naive expectation that the federal authorities would arrange the repatriation of her husband back to Australia in something like a military C130 or medically equipped commercial airliner or a private jet.
But Mrs Dobson was wrong, to her surprise they said: “No, it’s not our problem, it’s YOUR problem”.
But these helpful and marvellous people did have one idea: “You should call a medical air service company in Europe; they will be able to help”.
And true enough, they were able to help, as when Mrs Dobson spoke to a man with a strong Gallic accent, he said:
“Oui Madame, ve vill do thees for you, zee price is 250,000, how you say, dollars”.
Zis was, how you say, bad news, as Mrs D had already dropped an initial $30 long on the bizarrely and unconvincingly named Max Super Specialty Hospital and she was tapped out.
In fact, Max Super demanded the $30K up front, before George got so much as a chapatti.
So, with the official line of: “Good luck with that” ringing in their ears, the Dobson family set about raising the money themselves; the upside was that at least dad was in some form of hospital and they’d bought some time and by September 4th they had raised $57,000.
But the downside was that by October 9th and after more surgery, catching pneumonia and suffering renal failure, it was George who was out of time, as George was dead.
The threads of this page are about to coalesce but here’s a layman’s synthesis of the 3 points above in the context of what too many of us in outdoors too often do:
* We often don’t always remember what Dr Maslow wrote about regarding the prioritizing of Needs.
We often feel we NEED that new Marmot 3-in-1 Jacket, cost $329, when we don’t need it at all. We’d like it but we don’t need it; our old jacket would actually be absolutely fine.
* At the time of organising our trip, we are feeling fit and well and we often fail to use our imagination to speculate how we’d feel having fallen 15 metres in a remote part of India and be lying in the dirt with a broken back.
But if Dr Maslow was watching us plan for our trip and to paraphrase him slightly, he would say:
“Dude, if the shit hits the fan, do you really need that new jacket or do you need remote area evacuation to a first world hospital of your choice? And by the way, they’re the same price”.
Jacket people and gear freaks, go to REI’s homepage here
The rest, go here ……