Note: Thank you all so so so so so so so much for all of the donations, tweets, facebookings and offers to help me bake cookies in support of PAWS New England. It looks like we’ve already raised over $200… and we’re just getting started! Let’s tack on a zero or two, shall we? At the back of the number? The internet can be a wonderful, wonderful place. Right now, you are all reinforcing every good thing that I’ve ever said about social media. I will post an update all on its own about the Care Package of Awesomely Awesomeness. Rest assured, it will be, well, awesome. I’m going through a wee bit of a family emergency right now (understatement!) and a) having this to focus on and b) knowing how many wonderful friends I have on the internet and under the day star is really what’s pulling me through.
You'll understand the point of this picture in a moment.
Kristian and I stayed up last night to watch the rescue of the first Chilean miner be winched his way to safety. As we watched, I found myself rubbing at whatever was, ahem, “irritating my eyes.” It’s an amazing story, isn’t it? Thirty-three men survive a horrific accident, find themselves trapped far underground with no idea if they’ll ever be rescued. Trapped in a small, dark area with stale air, 90 degree temperatures and with a bunch of other smelly men (not a lot of showers in mineshafts), they resist the urge to go completely crazy and instead subsist on 2 days worth of food until rescue workers finally let them know that, hey, we didn’t forget about you guys. By the way, you probably won’t die down there.
These guys participated in their own rescue by helping to clear the mineshaft. They organized themselves into teams, doled out different jobs and roles to the men who were best suited for them and not once did all work and no sunlight make one of them go all psycho on his comrades. Not only that, but they made a pact to split the proceeds of any book or movie deals that might happen so none of them profits above the others. Instead of pushing and shoving each other aside to be the first guy out of that hellhole, they argued over who got to be the last man to leave. I don’t know about you guys, but I would have been sorely tempted to let everyone else battle it out over who got to stay down there while I (somewhat) calmly accepted a lift up out of Camp Stinksville.
Speaking of no sunlight, how insane is it to not see the sun for over two months? I go crazy when it rains for more than two days in a row. And I’m usually pretty antsy by about 10am on the second day. I sincerely hope that the supplies lowered down to the miners included Vitamin D supplements the size of horse pills.
Reflecting on the Miners’ story (let’s just go ahead and say that it was reflection and not insomnia), I was reminded of another story from almost a hundred years ago. The story of Ernest Shackleton and his amazing survival. Shackleton and his crew set out on a boat called the Endurance (let’s all stop here and laugh at my terrible joke of a blog title) en route to the South Pole. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t quite make it. Their ship got stuck in an ice flow. Even more unfortunately for them, it was winter. In Antarctica. Which, as you might guess, gets rather cold.
The ship was eventually crushed by the ice surrounding it and the men were forced to camp out on an iceberg. An iceberg that was pretty much drifting in the correct, northerly direction, but an iceberg nonetheless. Those things are known to melt. Shackleton and his men eventually loaded what they could into boats and set off for land known as Elephant island. They made it there in one piece but quickly realized that a) nobody had any idea where they were and 2) they were pretty much right smack dab in the middle of nowhere. So, they did what any Losties would have done and they sent a small party in a boat out in search of rescue. Shackleton was a smart dude, he took the biggest whiners on the boat with him, leaving everyone else to hang out on Elephant Island in peace and quiet. This was all part of his master plan for everyone to Not Die™.
Oh yes, Shackleton had a plan. Every single shipwrecked sailor (say that ten times fast) was coming back home with him and none of them was coming back in a box. He didn’t care how sick they were of seal meat. Freezing to death on the ice was simply not an option.
(Spoiler alert: they all made it).
So, Shackleton did everything he could, not only to keep his men healthy and relatively un-frostbitten, but also to keep their spirits up. People have a tendency to Not Die™ if they have something to live for that’s not seal meat (BTW, seal meat has a tendency to become poisonous if you eat too much of it). This was decades before videoconferencing and antidepressants, so he didn’t exactly have a lot to work with.This is why he took all the whiny bastards with him. He figured the rest of his crew was far more likely to Not Die™ if they didn’t have “If I freeze to death, I won’t have to hear that bastard keep complaining” running around in their heads.
This is why the first Chilean Miner to be rescued was Joe Stinkbreath.
(I totally made that up).
(The first Chilean Miner to be rescued, Florencio Avalos, was chosen because it was universally decided that he could eloquently and accurately speak for the Miners still trapped).
Shackleton and his grumbly compatriots set off for land. In a small boat. In the arctic sea. In an era loooong before polypropylene. They managed to not freeze to death or toss each other overboard and then realized that, while they had made landfall, they were on the wrong side of the land. With a big ass mountain in between themselves and rescue. Incredibly, they managed to make it up and over, sliding down the last part of the mountain on the world’s most terrifying toboggan ride. With no actual toboggan.
They made it to safety, found some folks who were willing to go rescue their compatriots and everyone made it back to Europe safe and sound. Mental scars don’t count.
(This is why so much attention has been paid to the Chilean Miners’ mental health).
It’s an incredible story and it is totally intertwined in my head with the story coming out of Chile. Things are pretty jumbled up there, but I think my brain has a point. Men find themselves trapped. Men don’t give up. Men beat the odds to survive. A strong and charismatic leader helps everyone to keep it together. Let’s just hope that shift leader Luis Urzúa, credited with keeping it all together, fares better than Shackleton in the long run. Shackleton died on his very next expedition.
I am amazed at the rescue of 33 men who everyone thought was dead. I am amazed at the ability of the human spirit. I am amazed that the entire global community came together to help these men. I am glad to know that we’re not all just a bunch of bastards. Our species hasn’t completely disappointed me, at least not yet.
Addition: One of my (fabulous, lovely) commenters reminded me that Shackleton’s men on Elephant Island were ultimately rescued by a Chilean ship. (Leaving out important details like that is one of the reasons that posts like this should probably not be written entirely from memory). That it was a Chilean crew who came to Shackleton’s aide brings everything back around in a way that is so neat and tidy, it’s enough to make the OCD-like part of my brain purr.
What stories amaze and inspire you?
Great, great post – thanks!! I’ve also been struck by the similarities between Urzua and Shackleton and how amazing both of their stories of leadership are.
An interesting footnote to your post — among the “folks who were willing to go rescue” Shackelton’s men on Elephant Island, the ones who ultimately were successful were the crew of the CHILEAN naval vessel the “Yelcho,” captained by Pilot Luis Pardo Villalon. Pardo became a national hero in Chile, and turned down a cash reward from the British government because he said he was just doing his duty as a Chilean naval officer.
The “Phoenix” is a great name for the rescue capsule, but many in Chile would’ve understood (and appreciated) if it had been nicknamed “Yelcho.”
West of the Cascades – thank you for your comment! I had totally forgotton that Shackleton’s men were rescued by a Chilean crew. (I wrote this post from memory) Your addendum adds that little extra something to the story. Thank you for sharing.
Wow! Amazing.
(I also had something irritating my eye when the first miner emerged. Weird.)
The live coverage of the rescue should have been sponsored by Visine.