you know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
The Chilean miner story is crazy.
You couldn’t make this drama up on a Mexican Soap Opera.
33 men, trapped under the Earth. Scared and frightened staring into the inferno of a cold, stalactite hell. And they rise like the Phoenix from the ashes, reborn, no longer miners, but symbols of what man can be.
Unless you have been in an operating room all day having your gall bladder removed, you have undoubtedly seen the plight of these Chilean miners.
It’s on CNN and FOX and ABC and NBC and Telemundo.
there are a 1000 journalists camped out.
It’s Apollo 13 with more gravity.
The entire world is watching.
Each miner emerges wearing four hundred dollar Oakley sunglasses.
They are amazing men, resolute and determined and passionate and thankful.
They pray and hug their loved ones. They lead the crowd in Chilean soccer chants.
They know what it is alike to be alive, because they know what it is like to be half a mile under the Earth, in the dark, in the despair in a cave of hopelessness.
All these 33 men did was overcome adversity.
They made the most of their 70 days of darkness and a tablespoon of tuna fish.
Early on, before the satellite feeds and all access tours a mile under the ground, it was death on a stick. 33 men, wasting away, their bodies eating themselves. They cried themselves to sleep and fought off the pain in their guts.
And then, when there was no hope left, when there was only darkness and dirt, they heard the bang of a drill bore on their cavernous rooftop.
Suddenly, like angels trumpeting the arrival of the Lord, the Chilean 33 knew their heavenly prayers had been answered.
What started as THEY ARE ALIVE, quickly became a hole to get food and medicine and messages back and forth. That hole then became a conduit for round the clock cave-cam that transformed ordinary miners into world famous rock stars.
Suddenly we were learning about illicit affairs, and babies to be born and matrimonial entreaties a mile inside the Earth.
Hollywood couldn’t even write something this real, this emotional, this uplifting.
The images coming out of this South American desert are poignant. The wheel moving means the cable is turning and the capsule of freedom is rising with another rescued man. The flags and the passion and the president are on display for all to see.
This is a choreographed, made for tv event. The miners have reportedly been coached on how to arrive into their new lives in the sunshine.
Some chanted as if this was a soccer game. Some dropped to their knees and gave thanks to a spirit that filled their capsule and brought them to freedom. Some hugged their loved ones so hard, you couldn’t have gotten a pry bar between them.
These men are heroes and studies in determination and pure will to survive.
If you think your life is arduous tonight. Just watch CNN for a few minutes. Imagine what its like to live under 2000 feet of crumbled Earth, cut off from the light, from your love, from everything you knew.
Imagine 2 and a half months of not bathing, brushing your teeth, crapping in a corner in the dark, then wiping your butt with sand.
Then listen to your tormented co-workers crying and praying and giving one another hope.
October 13th 2010 will always be celebrated in Chile as the day the 33 rose from the depths of despair.
What happens next is anyone’s guess, but for a few harrowing months, this story documented the full spectrum of the human condition.
And that is crazy.