Sir:
Did anybody read Piers Paul Read’s book “Alive“, or see the movie? In 1972 a small airliner with 46 people crashed in the Andes Mountains between Chile and Argentina. The 16 who survived both the crash and a later avalanche ate the bodies of the dead. Nando’s sister died after 10 days in his arms. Eventually Nando and his friend Roberto Canessa hiked out 10 days through unbelievably treacherous terrain, and after 72 days the group was rescued. It is an incredible book, I’ve read it several times. Nando finally wrote his own book, “Miracle in the Andes“. It is not anywhere so complete as “Alive“, but it is his own tale of the gripping emotional struggle he faced to survive and then to hike out in the face of certain death. ( and it is great to read the epilogue of how everybody is doing after 30+ years. Nando has a beautiful wife and two daughters). The ending is so movingly articulated.They did not survive because of leadership, innovation, creative problem solving, or teamwork, although of course all those things were an integral part of his experience. It was not cleverness or courage or competence or savvy that saved them.It was love–for each other, for their families left behind, for the lives they wanted to live. It was love that saved them. I’ve always thought of trying to get people to prep as related to warning of impending crisis, whether a nuclear jihad on CONUS, natural disaster, dollar and banking collapse, etc. I’ve been wondering instead how much of the problem with doom-n-gloomers is just plain lack of love. I wonder if talking about loving our children or friends is really the only way to talk about prepping, and if love really is the only thing, in the end, that will get us all through what is coming. Life with wheat and beans and no love won’t be worth living. – Lyn
Letter Re: Nando Parrado on Survival
