Random Thoughts Thursday part 15

If you haven't read the story, I think it is worth taking a moment to look up how four kids survived a plane crash AND the Columbian Amazon for 40 days before they were rescued. Go ahead... I'll wait.

---

Mind blown? Mine still is, and I read about this three days ago. I am a mother of two, and I am trying to imagine surviving out in the elements for 40 days even as an adult with older children. I would barely manage camping with all the necessary gear. After about a week of this, I'd be craving plumbing and stable shelter. If you read about this plane crash, you know that a 13-year-old helped her three younger siblings, ages 9, 5, and 1, survive until they were rescued 40 days after their ordeal. My head is spinning with different things I could write about, and all my thoughts are flooding faster than I can type. I can talk about calm in a crisis, survival skills knowledge, the will to live and persevere, and the miracle of this story. There is so much here that I hope filmmakers deem it movie-worthy because what these kids went through is just incredible.

The Crisis

After surviving a plane crash where the three adults in the plane did not make it, four kids were faced with the daunting task of living in extreme conditions while awaiting rescue. As I understand it, their mother survived the crash for four days before passing. So in addition to meeting basic needs, these poor kids were dealing with the grief of losing a loved one. (A pause here to contemplate... This alone would have likely crushed my spirit.) But there were pressing needs: a baby to care for and young ones to lead. I am so impressed with the knowledge of the older siblings. In their culture, they were taught about what foods were edible, and all of that knowledge would be put to the test. I think about my rather average life in the United States, and although I think I am a good gardener, I still do not have the wherewithal to sustain four people with enough nutrients to cope for 40 days. This fact really gave me pause to think about what I teach my high school students. I am a math teacher, and although I give them opportunities to create some nice practical projects, I doubt my students could manage themselves while lost in nature. And I mean no disrespect to my students because I, their teacher, couldn't last long either... No stinkin' way. The kids in this story were not just dealing with "nice nature," they were battling rain 16 hours a day in a place known for having some big predators and small stinging and biting critters too. Now, I'm embarrassed to even admit that I get grumpy when my boots leak on rainy days because I hate wet socks. Let me see a snake or two, and I'm done. Someone call me a taxi! Honestly, I could talk about this story and these amazing kids for 20 pages. I have nothing but the deepest respect for what they were able to do. I felt it was a story worth telling, but I also think there is a lot we, as a society, can learn from such a situation. For now, I will just touch on three ideas for the sake of brevity.

Be Brave

When faced with the unknown, it can often be very scary. Sometimes, in order to improve your situation, you have to think, make a decision, and be brave enough to act on your plan. I am 46 years old, and I have had many ideas in my lifetime that have just sat on the back burner because I did not have the courage to take a risk and go after my dreams. What's my takeaway from these kids' story? When challenged with difficult situations, push through the fear and try anyway.

Be Creative

From the news reports I watched, I learned that the kids used hair ties to construct shelter and wrapped their legs in additional cloth to protect themselves from insect bites. In the absence of modern technology, these young geniuses had to use what they had and make do to try to improve their predicament. Ingenuity is very near and dear to my heart. Not that I want to be in a crisis situation, but every now and then I crave the opportunity to use my wits to create something from "nothing." When I used to travel to Bulgaria for summer vacations, I grew to love the village life where something would break every day and you needed to use your brain to temporarily fix things until real repairs could be made. Sometimes I did such a great job at jerry-rigging a solution that we could wait a bit to actually repair or replace something. Those were proud moments. The family of these children did a lot of things right by teaching them basic life-saving skills. I think even in a modern society, we need to practice what to do when in less than ideal situations.

Never Give Up

The key to the children's survival I think had to do with their strong drive to not quit. I don't even know them, but as a parent and teacher, I am SO, SOO proud of them. They overcame impossible odds, and though I know there must have been times that they wanted to quit, they didn't, and that is so commendable. Now, I know that in their case, they did not really have a choice about whether they would go on an extreme adventure for 40 days, but think about this: they did not KNOW how their journey would end. I think it is a lot tougher to continue something when you do not know when it will be over. I can give you two examples to support this point. When I was pregnant with my sons, I had something called hyperemesis. It is supposedly a rare condition (although it happened to me twice) where you are nauseous the entire time you are pregnant. I was exhausted and had to be hooked up to an IV every day to get my fluids and vitamins so I could concentrate on SLOWLY, ever so slowly coaxing myself into keeping very bland food down for the calories I needed. It's a whole long story, but the point is that I was miserable, but I made it through with a good attitude BECAUSE I knew the timeline. I can count days of pregnancy, and believe me, I did have a countdown going until I would meet my beautiful baby boys. It was a lot easier to focus on the endgame when I knew that there was a finish line. Now consider a different scenario: COVID. Ugh, I cringe to think about it, but the repeated COVID lockdowns just about drove me insane because none of us in the world knew when we would EVER get back to some semblance of order. It was a LOT harder to be patient when I didn't know if we would ever taste freedom again. All this to say, my hat is off to those kids for never giving up, even when the end was not clear.

Life Lessons for Chess or Chess Lessons for Life

Can I apply this to chess? Well, sure, why not? I won't belabor the points because, really, I think the message here applies a lot more to life than a chess game, but hey, we like to think that chess models life too anyway, right? When playing chess, sometimes you have to calculate your risks and then just be brave and try something new. I really believe that this is the only way to learn something valuable. Of course, we need to be creative and try things in a new way just to keep players guessing. And last but not least, never give up! I recently played a game where I got distracted by someone talking to me and blundered a rook. It should have been a sure defeat, but I knew my opponent was prone to blunders as well, so I waited it out, and sure enough, in the last moment, he relaxed too much and made a mistake in a winning position. Thankfully, he is a good sport!

You Can Do It!
The news is often filled with tragedy and sorrow, and this story has its share of sad moments too, but the overwhelming positive message was just too good not to tell. I hope that these kids make a full recovery, both physically and emotionally, from all that they went through. I am confident that their story will inspire others who know them. My random thought for today is that I want to be more optimistic, like children, and try things that may look impossible on the surface.

I wish you the same spirit of adventure as you continue your journey through life!
Cheers!