My review of Bear Gryll’s autobiography
Bear Grylls is a really famous survival expert and a well known Christian. I bought his autobiography Mud, Sweat and Tears for Fr Koala because I wanted to know what Bear thinks about faith.
I don’t know why but I expected Bear to write like a Victorian soldier. I imagined that he would say a lot of things about duty to others. He does, but not in those words and not in a stuffy Victorian way.
Mud, Sweat and Tears is mostly about outdoor adventures. Bear writes about the tough time he had in the selection process for the SAS. He also describes his journey up to the top of Mount Everest, just two years after fracturing his back in three places.
There is childhood and family detail but not too much. We find out about Bear’s ancestors, his childhood, his schoolboy days at Eton and how he met his wife. The childhood part of the book isn’t as well written as the adventure sections. For some pages I wasn’t sure if he was a happy little boy or not. It seems he had a good childhood overall.
Bear talks about the importance of his faith in God but he doesn’t plaster it all over the reader. Some Christians go on and on about God so much that it gets annoying. Bear gives God credit in a dignified, discrete and soldierly way.
I think Mud, Sweat and Tears is a good book to give to a brisk and practical sort of person who wants to go to church but is afraid that Christianity might be too soppy and babyish for them.
Irenaus said: “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Bear has the love of comradeship in adventure that is what Christianity and being alive is about. For that reason I think this book would be good for a church discussion group that wants to focus on friendship.
Bear is also a motivational speaker. I think he must be good at it. I felt motivated by reading his words. I would like to know what else he has written in a motivational line.
Fr Koala says that the autobiography itself might not motivate people in churches. Bear comes from a privileged background and he went to Eton. This might depress and demotivate readers who did not have such a lucky start in life. Going to Eton shapes a boy’s ability to self-motivate for the rest of his days. An Eton boy is not laughed at by his teachers when he expresses great ambition. An Eton boy starts life on a trampoline.
Nonethless, a private school education did not get Bear into the SAS and it did not get him to the top of Everest. If it did, Boris Johnson and David Cameron would be SAS Everest mountaineers too. I think we can use the autobiography to motivate people in churches if we start from the SAS bit and carry on from there.
I liked Bear’s book and I will read other ones.
