How to get along for 500 days alone together

[sandl]

The search is on for a couple to train as astronauts, for a privately funded mission to Mars. But wouldn't any couple squabble if cooped up together for 18 months? Explorer Deborah Shapiro, who spent more than a year with her husband in the Antarctic, provides some marital survival tips.

It never ceases to amaze us, but the most common question Rolf and I got after our winter-over, when we spent 15 months on the Antarctic Peninsula, nine of which were in total solitude, was: Why didn't you two kill each other?

We found the question odd and even comical at first, because the thought of killing each other had never crossed our minds.

We'd answer glibly that because we relied on each other for survival, murder would be counter-productive.

Still, people do get cabin fever - an emotional disturbance that can affect people living in small spaces, in an isolated place.

(cont. @)  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21619765

[LoveLife&Laughter]

I knew getting along bath's were optional.

[DragaoDHJ]

Oh  _ _ _ _ no!

[ozzieowl]

Golly, that is an amazing page to read, thanks sandl.

I particularly liked the paragraph;

 "We figure that a couple who ran a farm a few generations ago would be very likely to have a successful trip to Mars.

Why? Because a couple on a farm lived in interdependence, with accepted roles. They lived frugally, entertaining themselves, producing what they needed and repairing their tools that broke. All those traits are necessary for a long space voyage."

I so understand this as I have read many stories of folk who lived

back in the early 1900's and how hard a life they had,

and over here in Australia, couples would live long miles

from a township. I feel these pioneers would have discovered

and had to find ways of overcoming their own personal demons

many times over, in order to grow mentally.

It is interesting to spend a moment now, 

looking at the vast comparison between those times

and how we see most folk living in suburbia today.

Great article.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

True, but another way of looking at it...

If they were not working off their buts, either individually or together to stay alive, they spent all their time picking lice out of each others hair.