picture used from The Sun/UK "Up, Up and Hooray!"
After the kids were tucked safely away in their beds, I decided to go to bed early and just watch this amazing feat of engineering, collaboration, unity, perseverance , fear, joy and faith that this country is dealing with and experiencing. The next miner comes up and he is just a ball of energy! He is running and jumping and leading the crowd in the football cheer. He embraced every rescue worker and was full of life! Again the water works just came back.
I have seen two more rescues and as of right now they are in the process of rescuing the 13th miner. They are still far from the end, but the spirit you see being fed back via the media is infectious. You feel a sense of pride, you feel a sence of hopefulness, you feel a sence that human life is precious and resilient and worth all that has been put into this rescue effort.
In watching this, I realized that this media coverage is not just covering an amazing rescue,one for the history books, but it is covering what is important. Each time a miner comes up safe and you watch them embrace their families and friends, the world seems to be less evil, less broken and less full of nonsense. It seems that not only has the tangible effort brought together countries, villages, companies, and people who would more or less never of given thought to each other but it is bringing the world together seeing the human spirit at work .
There are no campaign agendas, there is no Al Qaeda and Taliban, there are no wall street investigations, there is no 9.6% unemployment, there is no recession recovery, and there is no left or right. All there that being pumped into my living room is this fragile peace that passes all comprehension; something each of us are born with but rarely ever tap into.
This peace could change the world, if everyone could just take one slice of what this amazing moment in history is giving us and really understand its power! In doing that the world would be a little bit less confusing, the egos would be a little bit smaller and the evils would be a little bit less scary.
If you have not seen this amazing feat of turning a tragedy to an amazing story of rescue, survival and the thriving human spirit, there is still time. Sit down and at least watch one. I believe it will be a moment you will never forget.
A Piece of the Pie Hole 
I watched it well past 1am last night. You captured the emotions perfectly. It is kind of sad though when I am watching what is good about humanity unfold on TV then that gets interrupted by commercials, all political ads, all of which are highly negative, reminding me of some of the bad parts of humanity. Great post!
Thank You Idiot! I guess the serious heartfelt tone is sticking with the WordPress family right now. I was watching cable news so I did not get the ads (thank God), but I did get the “can’t have dead air discussions and speculations and stupid ones at that at times. Maybe the political ads would of been better:-) # 14 and the oldest just got rescued! Almost half way there plus two rescuers. This must feel pretty close to you since you were down in South America doing rescue training?
I haven’t had a chance to watch the footage yet but you have me in tears just reading your blog! I will follow your advice and make some time to go watch some of the guys brought up. And it seems pretty clear to me why you got 5’s on your AP exams two years in a row – you write so beautifully!
FL: Thank you so much for the kind words! This moment is history in the making and we get to see it happen. It just filled my heart with hope more than anything I have ever seen.
In other words….not good at BS – good at capturing what really matters! 🙂
I have been sitting here watching on BBC World Live on my computer: no ads, no interruptions. No 26 up now! On the side of the picture are posts from people all over the world as they write into the BBC with their comments. Russia, Alaska, Missouri, England, Ukraine, Belgium, Barcelona, Montreal, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Croatia, Luxembourg, Columbia, Italhy, California …… the list goes on and on. Echoing the comments in your post. The feeling of heart felt good wishes and joint pulling together is wonderful.
Like you I have been thinking of the Idiot and how much good rescuers like his group do. I am also so impressed by the Chilean Minister for Mining: not only does he seem to have supported the endeavour politically , but has been there night and day and appears to be giving genuine support to relatives.
You have written so eloquently what the rest of us are feeling, thank you.
Well said! I feel like there are a thousand lessons that we (the world) can learn from our friends the Chileans. They did not turn one ounce of help away, they were committed from the beginning to the end no matter who, what or how the help got to them. They did not start the blame game and the pointing of fingers. They focused on what needed to get done and the proof is in this outcome! They are a proud people, but not in the sense of ego and power, in the sense that they are proud of their hard working citizens and they WILL take care of them no matter what!
okay…I’ve started to watch some of the footage and I am a mess! Saw the footage of the first miner come up I think and being reuinited with his wife and son. Oh my….sniff…sniff…blubber…blubber…
If you were here I would share my Kleenex box with you!
Latest tweet on BBC as the last miner is brought out:
” Guy Adams, a correspondent for the UK’s Independent newspaper, tweets from Copiapo: “Copiapo is a mining town, so a lot of extremely tough men are crying right now here in the square”
Oh I had Sky News on in the background the whole day on Wednesday – just the most awesome thing to witness. Such a sense of community, and doing what is needed and the right thing in the midst of a crisis. So humbling, so beautiful, so heartwarming. The President, the Mining Minister, the Health Minister and others stayed and greeted each miner and told them they were proud of them, they were heroes etc etc. In South Africa there is powerful philosophy called ubuntu – I am what I am because of who we are. Chile demonstrated that for sure. Thanks for a beautiful post.
Sunshine xx
I was emotionally spent watchin’ these men bein’ rescued. Every man who came outta that hole got a tear from me. it was the looks on their faces as they realized it really was over, they were alive, and “oh theres my loved one”! There was one guy there wer tryin’ to coddle and guide over to the medic-shyt that mofo was jumpin up and down hollar’n, and grabbin’ and huggin folks-thats when I burst into full fledge waterworks…
When you think of the mines that collaped in the past-all those men died and some were never found…. this is truly a miracle. God had his hand in it.
This is a wonderful example of how he works. PRAISE HIM!
(**aww dayumm! now Im cryin’ again! thank God I dont wear make-up!**)
DatGurl- Yes, the water works were flowing over in these parts. I went through a whole box of Kleenex! Yes, we do need to Praise Him. . . the whole world needs to recognize who made that whole amazing rescue possible. All the miners do!