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TechnoratiSome Thoughts About The True Miracle in The Andes.
Exactly 35 years ago this Saturday, an horrific and extraordinary chain of events was set in motion high in the Andes above Chile. A small commuter plane carrying 45 people crashed on Friday the 13th of October 1972. For the next two months, a group of survivors of the crash; most of whom were the young members of a Uruguayan rugby team called the "Old Christians," kept themselves alive against all laws of nature, physics, and reason. Like many, you are probably familiar with this story because of its more gruesome details, some of which- namely that the survivors ate the flesh of the dead in order to stay alive- were obsessed over and sensationalized in media for months after the rescue, and then again in the early 1990s when Frank Marshall directed a film called "Alive" (based on Piers Paul Read's book). If you saw the film or read the book, you will recall that one of the primary characters on the mountain was a man named Nando Parrado. Nando himself says in his own book "Miracle in the Andes" (published in 2006) that he was a not a man of any particular leadership skill or quality at the time of the crash, but nonetheless, over the course of the two months following the accident, he emerged as the key figure in the salvation of the other 15 survivors.
Nando was the driving force behind an expedition out of the mountains (which he undertook along with medical student Roberto Canessa) to get the group rescued after 60 days of surviving the freezing temperatures, altitude sickness, a crushing avalanche (which killed eight of their companions in a matter of minutes), starvation, thirst, grief, despair, and the horror of being witness to their own slow deaths. Nando and Roberto walked for 11 days over a 17,000-ft peak and across more than 60 miles of ice, snow, and rock with nothing but the street clothes they had packed for a weekend vacation and the will to live.
When Nando came to SUNY Brockport last month to give a talk to students, he had an audience of more than 1500 (the largest I've seen there by a scale of three times). Before he left the stage, he had been given three standing ovations, each of which lasted well over a minute. I was very fortunate to get to spend some time with Nando after his talk, and he graciously allowed me to ask him anything I wanted to know about his experience in the Andes. After some discussion of things like his relationships with the other survivors, how he has been able to not let the disaster be the most important thing in his life, and what he learned on that mountain about himself and human beings, I came to realize that what was most fascinating to me about Nando was not the tragedy or even that he had had the amazing luck to survive such an ordeal. What is most extraordinary about Nando is that he has taken an experience that might destroy most of us, and instead of defining himself as a victim, he has chosen to use his survival as an opportunity to embrace life fully and to show others how to do that as well. He spends many months traveling each year to talk to audiences all over the world about his experiences. But he doesn't lecture them on "leadership" or "teamwork" or "courage." He talks to them simply and candidly about how he learned that love is the only sane reaction to horror and death. He credits his will to survive- indeed, his survival itself-to his love for his father. It's interesting, because although he always packs the room, I get the feeling that Nando doesn't fully understand why people respond to him the way they do. He perceives that he is made into a hero for his actions (which is probably true in the case of some people), and more powerfully (and correctly) that his story resonates with people because it demonstrates to them that anything can be endured and overcome. But I think the most significant reason that people respond so strongly to Nando is not just because of what he endured, but because he reminds us that even in the most hopeless of situations, we still have a choice. At its core, Nando's story demonstrates that we always have a degree of control over our lives, even if that choice is simply defining the terms under which we die. This phenomenon is much more than hopefulness or optimism; it is the manifestation of human agency. It is the essence of empowerment.
There is a quote from Nando's book where, after being on the mountain for more than two months, enduring the deaths of 29 friends and family members (including his mother and sister), and upon reaching the summit of a 17,000 foot peak in -30 degree temperatures in jeans and sneakers, expecting to see green valleys below, he only sees more peaks and snow-filled valleys for as far as the eye can see. He writes:
I don't know how long I stood there, staring. A minute. Maybe two. I stood motionless until I felt a burning pressure in my lungs, and realized I had forgotten to breathe. I cursed God and raged at the mountains. The truth was before me: for all my striving, all my hopes, all my whispered promises to myself and my father, it would end like this. We would all die in these mountains. We would sink beneath the snow, and ancient silence would fall over us, and our loved ones would never know how hard we had struggled to return to them. In that moment, all my dreams, assumptions, and expectations of life evaporated into the thin Andean air. My love for my father swelled in my heart, and I realized that, despite the hopelessness of my situation, the memory of him filled me with joy. It staggered me. The mountains, for all their power, were not stronger than my attachment to my father. They could not crush my ability to love. I felt a moment of calmness and clarity, and that clarity of mind I discovered a simple, astounding secret: Death has an opposite, but the opposite is not mere living. It is not courage or faith or human will. The opposite of death is love. How had I missed that? How does anyone miss that? Only love can turn mere life into a miracle and draw precious meaning from suffering and fear. For a brief, magical moment, all my fears lifted, and I knew that I would not let death control me. I would walk through the godforsaken country that separated me from my home with love and hope in my heart. I would walk until I had walked all the life out of me, and when I fell, I would die that much closer to my father.
In that moment, when he accepted his own death as inevitable and impending, Nando made what must have seemed to him a tiny choice, but which had enormous consequences. Although he was sure that he would never see home again, he chose to refuse the path of least resistance. Instead of lying down in the snow and waiting for death to come to him (as he had pondered doing on many occasions during those two months), Nando elected to continue walking. He understood in that moment that the fear of death was the real horror. In making that split-second choice to take one more step, to breathe in and out one more time, Nando conquered that fear and discovered a reserve of spiritual resilience that he believes (as I also do) is accessible to everyone. Nando's transformational experience on that summit is not unlike what Buddha or Gandhi or other great spiritual leaders have described. Although he didn't know it at the time, in choosing to continue walking, Nando not only saved his own life and those of 15 other men, but he pulled all of us one step further down the road of human evolution.
Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science and international studies at the State University of New York at Brockport. She is currently working on a book project about leadership in the age of global citizenship.
27 Comments so far
Show AllMiracles happen everyday, many are unseen. I think that is what Nanado is talking about by experience, how to see miracles.
Or how to see the connectedness of all things, and separation defines an experience.
Often being a hero amounts to nothing more than seeing what needs to be done, and doing it, even if it isn't easy.
Maybe Forrest Gump got it right!
I too was considering a vote boycott, maybe
better for all of us to move enmass to the green party.
but it's quite evident our 'representatives' do no represent us, they are beholden to other masters as evidenced by the anti "moveon.org" resolution.
Beautiful. Amazing. Inspiring. Thank you Cynthia.
Dear commondreamers, it's good to remember, from time to time, how strong human spirit can be.
In 1975, "Villa Grimaldi" the infamous torture center of Pinochet's dictature was full of prisoners; we were stuffed in numbers of four, and even five, into "cells" that were closets of one meter sides; summer's temperatures in Santiago de Chile reaches easily over 30ºC (86ºF) and it was certainly much more into that lockers.
We were in the deepest hole of hell and our most likely fate was torture and death, but we didn't let the horror to overcome us, we organized a contest to choose the worst smelling of us.
We found our way to laughter even into the jaws of death, and those of us who survived were not only alive, but unbroken too.
Un abrazo
Machi
I've seen it as "Meter maids eat their young".
I've seen it as "Meter maids eat their young".
RUGBY PLAYERS EAT THEIR DEAD!!! Does anyone else remember this bumper sticker?
Great article, thank you. I remember when this happened and also the movie but never heard anything after that. I'm glad this man is still speaking about what happened and your interpretation is worthwhile reading for everyone.
GREAT STORY CYNTHIA ---- IT REMINDS ME OF CHRISTS STATEMENT ( TO HIS DOUBTING DISCIPLES ) THAT " ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE THRU GOD ---- AND SINCE THE ESSENCE OF GOD IS LOVE ----- HOW MANY EVER STOP TO REALIZE THAT " MORE LOVE " IS AVAILABLE TO EACH OF US ---- MERELY BY ASKING HIM TO SHARE WITH US SOME OF HIS INEXHAUSTABLE LOVE ?
Our Unitarian minister recently offered this quote in his sarcastically titled sermon "Get over it": Give up all hope for a better past.
Read it here: http://jeffersonunitarian.org/sermons/morales/index.html
I think that phrase is a recipe for moving forward emotionally. It applies a little less for politics because here we need to understand the past well in order to avoid traps. At the same time, the emotional baggage that comes with losing political campaigns can greatly hamper one's chances of winning future campaigns.
Our Unitarian minister recently offered this quote in his sarcastically titled sermon "Get over it": [b]Give up all hope for a better past.[/b]
Read it here: http://jeffersonunitarian.org/sermons/morales/index.html
I think that phrase is a recipe for moving forward emotionally. It applies a little less for politics because here we need to understand the past well in order to avoid traps. At the same time, the emotional baggage that comes with losing political campaigns can greatly hamper one's chances of winning future campaigns.
As I understand it, they remained with the plane because the geography was totally forbidding, and their best hope of rescue would be if a search party saw the plane from the air. But there's a point of desperation eventually reached and the only agency capable of rescuing themselves was themselves.
We can easily convert this into an allegory: the snow-covered Andes are the Republicans, our exploitive economy, and the MSM. Socio-economic barriers. The crashed plane is the Democratic Party, where all our hopes for rescue are (as it turned out, mistakenly) hung.
Nice, non-political article. devoid of any political, religious, socialpolicy references.
Io Q Lelitty's comment should not be brushed under the carpet here - what about people who have no "distant memory of love" to draw upon?
On one hand I feel for Io Q Lelitty and his dispair, but I also know that the fence that confines him can be overcome because the NANDO's experience is just one small slice, and only one man's path to the universal truth about all of us.
The love that empowered Nando can never be quanitified, there is no such thing as a little or a lot of it.
One small micron of love, at the right moment can transform Io Q Lelitty's dispair into "Now I understand"
Its not that love is in short supply, its that we can have such difficulties receiving it.
The tragedy of mankind is that some of us have to go through Nando's experience before we see the light, but the absolute beauty of it is like the author points out, and that Nando testifies to,
That at the end of it all, the suffering amounts to nothing, only the love endures.
IO Q Lelitty: What is a right-wing emotional perspective? I have no idea what that means, but am pretty confident I don´t have a right-wing anything. What an odd thing to say. I had no political agenda with this piece, I was just trying to celebrate in this piece what I think is a critical, but too-often neglected part of our humanity, our agency over our entire lives.
Whitewatersally, I literally have no idea what you are talking about.
Otherwise, thanks for the feedback!
Cynthia (Boaz)
BOYCOTT !!DEMAND BUSH BE IMPEACHED AND THE TROOPS BROUGHT HOME OR WE WILL NOT VOTE IN THEIR PRIMARYS OR ELECTION !!!!!!!IMAGINE THEY GAVE A VOTE AND NOBODY CAME !!
DEAR MS.CYNTHIA BOAZ,WHAT IF THEY GAVE A VOTE AND NOBODY CAME ??THEN THEY COULD NOT LIE TO US ABOUT WHO WON ??SHOULDNT WE BE DISCUSSING 'BOYCOTT'BOYCOTTING THE NEXT ELECTION,INSTEAD OF WHOM WE WILL VOTE FOR ??
How inspirational (riveting revelatory; I shared his breath reverently)!
that moment when Nando noticed "I had forgotten to breathe... raged at the mountains... truth was before me... opposite of death is love.
It is a blessing to appreciate MILLERCOPTER's courageous stand - as if alongside Nando's moment - reaching a deeper soul-fullness of our now and choosing onward.
Stillness that then drives forth declaration of connection keeps us all moving, enduring the illusion of separateness, through a melding of love, this journey's "small" step resonates beyond mere moondust.
Namaste Cynthia et al.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste
(the light within illuminates us both, raises us above our differences, we breath together)
Thank you, Millercopter, for sharing that. I am encouraged that you did not lay down.
In a world of spin and deceit, of manipulation and cynical hypocrisy, yes sometimes we need to point out that there is more to us than only the worst (which seems to hold the reins of power and money) and most venal.
We liked his courage. We hope it is ours. We liked his hope which gives us courage and encourages us. We like... liking him.
We need such 'tales' to guide us and we remember them. They aren't wishful thinking or fictional tales. The are tales of human beings and memorable ones. The kind of people and what they did, we try to remember as we go through our own lives because what one human can do the inference is that all humans can do. Without them ... we are left with only watching the selfish and priviledged take advantage, leaving us feeling small and hopeless instead. As many do now.
Until we read of ... who we would like to be and remember ...that he too is who human beings are. He is us. We need tales of the better part of us. Perhaps we need to know, when faced with the impossible that it is worth trying anyway. It was a good thing to learn. Reading about how humans do the impossible and that they succeeded anyway.
Hell yeah we need such tales. We always have. It's a human thing.
And most of all... we like that he succeeded. He said "...and when I fell, I would be that much closer to my father." We liked that too. There is an old eskimo tale of a charging polar bear bearing down on a helpless hunter out of ammo with two endings. One is that the hunter laughs for only humans could laugh when facing certain death. The other ending is that the hunter kicks some snow feeling that it was better to do something than just do nothing at all.
When he continued on even if he would fall he was kicking snow rather than doing nothing while facing certain death, just because he would be that much closer to his father.
This story is like that. Doing something rather than accept defeat and death by doing nothing.
I've always imagined that at least once when some hunter kicked snow ...that when he did a piece of ice smacked that polar bear in the eye and chased him away. Perhaps that eskimo who 'kicked snow' was one who told that tale...like Nando.
Kick snow. You never know!
I recall my father telling me that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. Love is a stunningly beautiful vertical wing and anchor. Our dreams whether sleeping or waking cross it, become it and are informed by it. Our actions manefest it in a kazillion little ways. My father's mother always reminded me that life is made up of the little things. Every living moment is an opportunity to manefest love. Lock onto that essence.
A tale to be sure. Do we need to define the qualities that are worth striving for in the face of horror? Is horror and the worst of conditions a litmus test that once and for all defines morality? Doesn't a particular group in this country continue to counsel the suffering by accusing them of a particular lack of certain mortality and fortitude?
Evolution may include engineering away negative, but human, characteristics that continue to create suffering in others.
Yes, thank you, for all of us who need a nudge, to jar us out of our self styled cocoon of separation.
We are all linked into the ONE.
"The mountains, for all their power, were not stronger than my attachment to my father. They could not crush my ability to love. I felt a moment of calmness and clarity, and that clarity of mind I discovered a simple, astounding secret: Death has an opposite, but the opposite is not mere living. It is not courage or faith or human will. The opposite of death is love."
"He pulled all of us one step further down the road of human evolution" That's a great statement and conclusion to a wonderful article.
Hoa binh
thank you,cynthia..for this contribution, sharing,'sound'doctrine...
Thank you, Nando, and thank you Cynthia. We understand the moral of the tale.
Where is my comment? Since when are we not allowed to write critically of the articles here? How dare you erase my comments on the fact that the author of this article is writing from a right-wing emotional perspective? That is the last time I ever contribute anything to the "discussions" here. Simpleton fraud.
Emotions are deterministic; and yes, the child abuse which most people endure means they won't be able to endure subsequent traumas with nobility; won't have the distant memory of love to survive because they were given none.