The thing that frustrates me the most about my day is the lack of certainty & reliability which surrounds my only form of transportation in NYC: the subway. It can start my day off on a depressingly bad note or it can end my day by bringing me near tears when I "just want to get home" but can't because the MTA is financial helpless, understaffed & often just having an exceptionally fucked up day.
And then I read a story like the one below & feel a sense of shame lined with guilt for ever allowing my troubles to trouble me so troublesomely. It happens all the time. You're feeling bad about your looks then you see an infomercial for a child in a 3rd world country with a cleft palate & suddenly, all does not seem lost. Your friend is complaining about the lack of variety in the grocery store chip aisle. After paying you walk past 2 homeless people outside the grocery store who likely wouldn't give a shit what flavor of chips they were eating. It's a lesson in not only humility but memory. We consistently have to remind ourselves or be reminded that we have it pretty frickin awesome.
Reading through the December issue of Vanity Fair I came across a story that gently reminded me of that tendency towards forgetfulness. A story that made me wonder what true character is & if every individual will have theirs tested at some point or another.
While technically the US is currently at war, Iraq/Afghanistan is a different beast than the war our grandparents dealt with in WWI and WWII in some ways. Mainly, I don't think we feel the daily impact of today's military expeditions the same way families or the US did during the late 30's and early 40's. This does not mean I'm unaware or worse, unwilling, to acknowledge similar, extraordinary tales of survival & rescue that are happening as I type. It only means that part of who we are as a military agency now is based on the history of then.
When I started perusing this article I wasn't sure what to expect really. The story was upfront and well written so it wasn't hard for me to continue reading ... but then it became hard for me to put down! The fact that three men both willingly and out of necessity worked together to protect each other, encourage each other & fight for each other is a beautiful. They survived more than insurmountable odds & experienced something that certainly changed them forever.
Of course I don't know this but my guess would be that in the same predicament, I would have flung myself overboard after day 2. I like to think of myself has brave, optimistic & resourceful; but, I feel like if I was clinging to maintain life in my undernourished body while clinging to the sides of a small, slowly sinking raft with sharks circling & praying that I would, indeed, give up... I might give up. I don't know how these men did what they did. This isn't a movie. This isn't a novel. It really truly happened.
If by reading their story a sliver of tenacity or courage rubbed off on me then I would re-read it every day of my life.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/12/unbroken-excerpt-201012
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