That's a Galaxy Quest joke for other nerds reading this... no further elaboration needed, except that it is probably wise for me to begin this post with a joke. That way it will ensure I keep things upbeat.
Today I have taken the proverbial well-earned lunch break, after two fraught days reformatting ansd reinstalling all my programs and data on my main computer. Thank the goddess for external hard drives!
Was unable to go online via my 'new' Mac as I need an ethernet cable some 10 metres long and permission from a surely young adult son to enter his room to access the household wifi modem!!! Why oh why did I get it installed there? Stupid moment methinks.
Anyway, sat down with my one whole grain sandwich (that's an important milestone for a post lap bander!!), to watch the news station, only to find Channel 9 live to the Chilean miners rescue.
My breath caught, I am in two minds. One total rapture that these 33 men can be rescued and returned to their families albeit with probable mental health issues impacting their lives for the forseeable future. The other emotion is overwhelming saddness. An irrational saddness really, given the time it has taken to drill the rescue shaft.
My dear brother could not have survived this long to wait for such a rescue effort, if they had had the tecnology back in 72. The men with him (82 others) on the 3,000 foot level survived for some unknown period of time after the silver mine fire in Kellogg Idaho, before succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning, but not months! Kevin would not have benefitted from this technology and skill yet I feel sad that he and his co-workers had no such option.
The fire had to be extinguished and taking the oxygen was the only way. I remain sad that Kevin's life was taken so young. Every time a mining incident or accidentcomes up on the news, the old emotional wounds re-open and the grieving begins anew. I thought the Beaconsfield disaster had solved that problem for me... with the April dates, the two week entrapment and other eerily co-incidental material.
This is different, so why the grief? I guess it is the whole media circus thing. I, like everyone around the world want to watch and feel vicariously part of the rescue, yet it is this same media coverage that so impacted my family when Kevin was trapped.
We the family became trapped and hunted. So much so that I was sent away to drama camp... yep... good call that... focus on The Beggars Opera while my brother's life or death was unknown!
The denial of family support and shared grief satys with me today. There is no blame... just saddness and the knowledge today that this will ALWAYS surface as one cannot 'get over' such traumatic events in one's life.
But hey, let's end on an upnote.. let's pray (to which-ever divine being) that no communities are decimated like Kellogg, USA again by such a tragedy and that human ingenuity can save lifes.
I should post the pic of the Kellogg memorial as an image but I haven't loaded those data files yet. I will though. This I promise the men and families affected.
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