ALIVE

In 1974, a book was published called "Alive" about the Uruguayan rugby team that survived a plane crash in the Andes mountains. They were there for over 2 months before 2 of them finally walked out of the mountains. I read the book over 15 times and became fascinated, (ie: obsessed, refer to my post of Jan 11). I was 11 years old and admit that I was initially drawn to the fact that they were reduced to cannibalism in order to survive. But after the first read, I realized that that truly was incidental to the story. While it allowed them to survive, they were all Catholics and were tormented by the decision they were forced to make. I became intrigued by the qualities in the survivors which led them to be either quite passive in their survival or to take action.

There is a film fest in my town this week and I went down to the Opera house to check out the line up and buy some tickets and saw that one film was "Stranded: I've come from a plane that crashed in the mountains". Yes, 34 years after the plane crash, the Survivors all took part in this documentary. I slammed down my 10 bucks and started counting the days. Today was the day. It was very well done and the film maker took care to have the survivors speak only as they experienced it all and not bring in hindsight. It was incredibly moving and the 2 that ended up walking for 8 days across the Andes are still remarkable characters. One man, Canessa, has a poetic way of speaking that will move you to tears. They went back to the glacier where the plane was, and brought their children to explain what it was like. It kicked my ass.

The good news is that it can be viewed on You Tube in about 11 parts: For part 1, click and then it will continue loading up the next parts....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ7eo5MaubI

I am not sure why I am so moved by their story but I certainly am. Being a survivor is not an easy thing. These men live with the knowledge of what they had to do in order to live and it is not as if once you survive, the rest of life is rosy-you are a changed person. And while you may have survived, others were not so lucky.

My heart goes out to Elena, one of my fellow breast cancer Survivors who was diagnosed with a recurrence of bone metastases 2 days ago.