Glued to the TV set, the world was spell bound for 22 1 /2 hours between Tuesday, October 12, 2010 midnight Chile time and the next day. The nail-biting, ultimate reality-show rescue operation of the 33 miners trapped in a remote part of the lyrical-sounding Atacama Desert in Chile bound the world together in a common cause at least for a day. I could only imagine how divine it must have felt when every single church bell in the deeply Catholic Chile rang, upon the emergence of the first miner, the 31-year-old Florencio Ávalos from the depths of dark copper-gold mine, his livelihood, that had swallowed him 68 days earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Copiap%C3%B3_mining_accident (details)
Always, it seems likes it takes a crisis for the human spirit to soar. In that singular moment, the clear focus that’s forced on us---in this case, the rescue of the miners---filters out all unwanted thoughts and actions from us. Watching the Chilean rescue made me want to apply that model of selflessness, diligence and faith in my own every day life. How much more we can accomplish in life if unnecessary, second-guessing and negativity that often color our thinking are eliminated.
The handsome leader (in very sense of the word) of the pack, the 54-year-old Luis Alberto Urzua (54), shift supervisor of the trapped miners seemed to know exactly what to do in this crisis. And he was naturally the last one to emerge from the mine.
The rescue was a lesson at so many levels. Personally, it was a study in leadership, teamwork, the larger good, selflessness and faith. All created, of course, by a desperate situation. Charles Dickens’s opening line in a Tale of Two Cities comes to mind: It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. Oh, if only we could live in such harmony and peace forever! But, according to reports, the old monsters: greed, competition, envy and their cousins, banished just temporarily it seems, are back in town in the form of media merchants and the rescued miners making all kinds of deals. We live in such a world, so one can’t blame them.
Last night, as we often do, my older son Karthik, possibly too deep a thinker for his own good (at age 13 his favorite book was Herman Hess’s Siddhartha), and I philosophized. In his characteristic way, he said that maybe this incident would force the world to shift in a different direction. I reminded him of his unintended pun on the word "shift." The miners were on an unintended 69-day shift after all. We both laughed, which we don’t very often because I’m never sure if my take on the world and Karthik’s are correct, and so I don’t always participate in such philosophizing fully. This time, I do want to go along with Karthik entirely because I want him to be right so badly. Indeed, things seem to have got so out of control in terms of what our priorities ought to be that a corrective shift seems so badly needed.
In 2007 I had gone to Chile and had a wonderful time. After witnessing the recent miracle and triumph of the human spirit in that land, I have found a special niche in my heart for the little metal flag that my Chilean tour director gave me, and the slim copper bookmark displaying that rapier-thin, sliver of a country, which I use regularly. This winter when I wrap that cozy alpaca shawl I bought in Puerto Montt, Chile, I’ll feel extra warm and extra grateful to Chile for showing the world how we as humans with all our faults can come close to being perfect when the occasion calls for it . . . we just need to remember that we mustn't really wait for an occasion to strive to be "perfect."
Viva la Chile!
Ciao.
Ro.
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