Chile Miners...sure hope they bundled up...get it?!

Rob's recent blog about earthquakes got me thinking about the miners in Chile. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/chile-second-half-rescues/ Apparently, all 33 of them have been rescued, for those of you who were wondering. While plenty of other sites are getting their news on, I feel the need to take a more personal twist on it.

I first heard about the whole incident from my boss at work. We were eating lunch one day and he mentioned it, I saw it on the news later that day but I remember him (my boss) and correspondents on CNN talking about all the psychological trauma these guys were expected to go through and exactly how long they were going to be stuck down there. While I know it was quite some time, I feel it's very fortunate that the 33 miners made it out alive. I can't imagine it was easy for them, but in a world where we tend to see so much more bad news than good, it's refreshing to see that we (as humans) aren't completely ignorant and incapable of assisting one another.

I dunno, I was pleased to see it all worked out, even if the guys did end up taking some serious blows to their psyche, at least they'll get to go home and see their loved ones again. And if they don't have loved ones, at least they'll get to smell fresh air again and see the clouds and interact with people again. Jack London wrote a short story called "How to Build a Fire." It's about a man who's a part of a transport crew, carrying something (I think it's some guys coffin...I'm sorry if I butchered this summary i haven't read it in ages.) through Alaska or antartica and he stays behind for whatever reason. Everything is going good until a snow storm hits and he starts making not so good time. The man finds it increasingly harder to build a fire, not only for lack of dry wood, but his fingers just aren't working properly any more and he can't strike a match. He's certain he's lost several toes to frost bite and eventually he sits down and resigns himself to his fate. (Here's where i'm going with this) As he slowly freezes to death he marvels at his hands, at the world around him at all he took for granted and would begin to appreciate more once he's saved. (Wanna know how it end? Read it or wiki it!)

I got into a car wreck several years ago, one I probably shouldn't have been able to walk away from, yet I did so unscathed. It changed the way I looked at the world and I can only imagine how these Survivors are looking at it. The man in to build a fire went through a few brief moments where he was certain he was going to die, I had less than a second to comprehend everything...these guys had what? Like a month?

Either way, makes me glad for the little things...(that's what she said--ahthankyou)

-Alex (paradigm)