MAKE LIFE AN ADVENTURE

 

Fred Spencer wrote a popular book named The Jungle is Neutral. Spencer had been a soldier in World War II, stationed in a small garrison on the island of Singapore, just off the tip of the Malay Peninsula. The British defence of this garrison was rather one-sided, as they felt that no army could ever pass through the impenetrable jungles to the north, and that any attack on Singapore would have to come from the sea.

To the chagrin of the British, however, the Japanese did the seemingly impossible and passed through the thick jungles of the peninsula to attack the garrison from the north. Singapore fell almost without a fight.

Spencer, who was able to escape into the jungle, however, had to spend nine months there before he was able to rejoin his countrymen.

He had heard two conflicting reports about the jungle, and so at the time of his flight, he really had very little idea of what to expect. He had heard that the jungle was a horrible place filled with snakes and insects, fruits so poisonous that one bite would kill, and brutal wild animals. Therefore, any person lost in the harsh forests would die very quickly. But the other story Spencer had been told was that the jungle was a lush, tropical paradise with plenty of fresh water and edible fruit. In other words, it was a place where anyone could survive with relative ease.

The truth that Spencer discovered during his nine months in that jungle was that the jungle is neutral. Spencer found that the jungle was neither preset to destroy him by making it impossible to survive, nor was it structured directly on the amount of effort he put forth to survive. Spencer was able to make of his environment what he chose to make.

Is life a jungle? Life, too, is neutral!

�Roger Dawson