AUGUST 3rd - Unless you Don't Mind the Possibility of Being Eaten



On this day in 1846, the Donner party encountered their first setback in their journey westward. It was just a note. An innocent little note. A note from their trail guide saying the trail he had tried was a bit more difficult than he thought and the Donner’s should await his return to find another route. Doesn’t seem all that ominous. Lose a few days here or there. But if you know anything about the Donner party, you know that this minor setback snowballed into a series of misfortunes that ultimately led to cannibalism. Yep. Cannibalism. Which is a hell of a place to end up. Imagine you’re driving home and realize that your route is blocked off and you have to detour twenty minutes out of your way. You’re thinking NBD. Might miss some of the evening news, but they replay it. And then someone eats you. Now things didn’t happen that fast for the Donner’s, and getting rerouted these days is not as perilous as making a cross-country trek in the midst of the dangerous elements of the 1800’s. I mean people don’t just resort to consuming human flesh for shits and giggles. Unless their shits and giggles come from a severely disturbed mind like Hannibal Lector or Jeffrey Dahmer. For the most part, I’d dare say that cannibalism is a last resort type of deal. Like getting snowed into a mountain pass and stranded in a frozen wasteland without any means of survival type of deal. Luckily, cannibalism hasn’t popped up all that often in history. Relatively speaking. I guess it is always a possibility, but thankfully it is not an expectation. The Donner Party is one of the more famous cases. And it all started on this day with an innocent little note stating the way they were going was too difficult. Unfortunately for the 44 members of the party who died before reaching California, that note didn’t say, “You should probably just turn back completely and go the established route--unless you don’t mind the possibility of being eaten.” While technically such a note could only be written with the benefit of foresight, it does demonstrate that you should always be specific and persuasive with your notes. Unless you don’t mind the possibility of being eaten.

This Day has been Marked.

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