Why the Collapse aware should see The Salt Path Film,
7 Lessons in Resileince , to save you the struggle,
Dear Courageous,
Imagine having only five days before you are evicted from your home, which is also your business. You are left with nothing, as all must go to pay off the debts of a scurrilous business partner. You are also dealing with a terminal illness that makes movement difficult and will only get worse.
Your world has totally collapsed and friends and relatives are unable to help, so what can you do?
The Salt Path is the true story of Raynor and Moth Winn, who in their 50s lose everything due to a bad business scheme.
This could happen to any of us,
When I first read the book The Salt Path, I thought they must have made some terrible decisions. Then I realised this could happen to any of us. Especially in our fragile world that is seriously unravelling . Where any remaining safety nets are being rapidly dismantled.
This personal story of collapse holds lessons for us all, as it shows how quickly a comfortable middle-class life can unravel. That ordinary people can easily free-fall into homelessness, illness and betrayal and there will be more of that as the economic situation gets worse.
What would you do ?
As the bailiffs are hammering on the door to evict them, Raynor picks up one of her books —it's about walking the South West Coast Path. This is a rugged 600-mile coastal path around the bottom western coast of England.
In that moment they decide to walk the “path” until they know what to do. They spend their remaining money on a second-hand tent and sleeping bags.
The first day Moth struggles with walking and they are both exhausted by carrying heavy packs. They only cover two miles .
What follows on this epic journey is an exploration of homelessness, poverty, deprivation, healing, and the bonds of relationship forged in struggle.
The film and the book demonstrate the power of their love for each other and how they overcome catastrophe. They are bereft, ill and traumatised and only able just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
The main themes in the Book and the Film
The realities of homelessness, the lack of money to buy food, to have a shower or have clean, dry clothes. The ingenuity that poverty and hunger creates to survive is a strong theme. As is the contrast between those who help and those who antagonise or turn away from them.
The film shows encounters where people treat them as tramps, whilst others give them generosity and kindness. There is exploration of “celebrity” and those who have everything, but take it all for granted.
When I read the book, this made me even more aware of the "homeless" and to not turn away, because there but for the grace of God it could be me.
The Winns show us how to not “Collapse “ , but to find ways to adapt, to grieve and find new meaning when all else has been stripped away. That resilience comes from human connections rather than material possessions.
7 Essential Lessons for the Collapse-Aware,
The Salt Path offers profound insights for those conscious of our system's fragility and the realities of our predicaments.
Mental Preparedness Over Material Stockpiling: The Winns had no time to gather supplies or plan—they simply had to adapt with what they could carry. This teaches us that psychological resilience and the ability to think creatively under pressure matter more than having the perfect bug-out bag.
Community Networks Are Everything: Throughout their journey, survival often depended on the kindness of strangers—a farmer offering water, a shopkeeper providing food, fellow walkers sharing knowledge. The film starkly contrasts those who help with those who turn away, reminding us that our response to others' vulnerability defines our own humanity.
Redefining Home and Security: When Raynor tells Moth "you're my home," it's not just romantic—it's revolutionary. The collapse-aware often focus on defending physical locations, but the Winns discovered that true security comes from unbreakable relationships and internal resources.
The Power of Forward Motion: "Just keep putting one foot in front of the other" becomes more than a mantra—it's a survival strategy. When overwhelmed by the magnitude of loss or change, breaking everything down to the next single step prevents paralysis.
Nature is our best Teacher and Healer: Stripped of modern comforts, they learned to read weather patterns, find shelter, and work with natural rhythms. The wild coast didn't just provide a route—it provided education in self-reliance and perspective on what truly matters.
Dignity in Vulnerability: Perhaps most importantly, their story shows that losing everything doesn't mean losing yourself. They maintained their humanity, humour, and hope even when society labeled them as "tramps."
Collapse doesn't mean the end, it can be transformative and generate new lives full of richness and new meaning.
The Healing Power of Nature
Beautifully filmed in one of the most scenic landscapes in England, it is a joy. Showing the power and uncertainties of the weather that they must endure. How surviving in this raw landscape, exposed and vulnerable, is also deeply healing.
The film ultimately presents the Winns "collapse" not as a failure, but as a triumph over adversity. Being thrown into depending on each other deepens their trust and love.
Theirs is a hard route to discovering what truly sustains us. That what truly matters is relationships, creativity, and reconnection with the natural world.
We can all learn from this and maybe miss out on some of the hardships they endured.
Not Glamorous, but Redemptive
I went to see the film with some trepidation after loving the book. I wondered how this story would be treated. It could be Gillian Anderson looking beautiful and calm in some Hollywood schmaltzy treatment of this real-life endeavour.
But it wasn't. I think they did the book justice—the acting of both Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs and the cast was excellent, totally believable.
I encourage you to go see the film and read the book, be entertained, be inspired, and maybe you will weep at the end as I did.
The book is even better, full of love, endurance and their triumph over adversity. Both offer ways for us to think anew and appreciate our own lives and the people in them. To recognise and come to terms with collapse and how it can quickly change everything. That the human spirit is alive in us all and we can reinvent ourselves—maybe write a book about our story, become a millionaire, have Gillian Anderson play us in a film. All is possible, because none of us know what may happen when we just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
With Love,
P.S Let me know in the comments if you have read the book or seen the film…maybe both like me. What did you think of it ?
So glad you're featuring this. I was so sad to miss it at the cinema... really wanted to go and support it, but will satisfy myself with streaming as I haven't seen it still, but would love to.
Your observation that a middle class existence can be destroyed overnight is absolutely spot on. When I was served a Clause 21 eviction notice 2 1/2 years ago, along with 40% of all renters in the UK, following the interest rate hikes, I found it nigh on impossible to find another house to rent, due to abject housing shortages in the private rental sector.
I was solvent, never having missed a rent payment in my life, running a flourishing small business, (a cottage industry, as I run it from home), and, as I entered the period where I imminently had to provide vacant possession on the house I was being evicted from, my heart was in my gut. I realised that I could switch from being an upstanding contributor to society, to a vagrant, OVERNIGHT, thereby being deprived of the means to run my business... a burden to the state, instead of someone who was supporting it.
This is all just so wrong!
Thankfully, the Universe came through for me with about 10 days to go... but the stress was awful.
As someone who works every day with migrants, in the main some of the very poorest people here in Ireland, where I work and live, they definitely make me more collapse aware. People hanging on by mere threads to a roof and basic necessities and sometimes not even that. I sometimes reflect that they are ‘canaries in the coal mine’ for what is hurtling at speed towards more of us. Their creativity, dignity and resilience is remarkable , just like Raynor and Moth