That All-Consuming Desire To Succeed

In August 2010, we were shocked when thirty-three miners were

suddenly trapped in a century-old gold and copper mine in Chile.

Sixty-nine days after a rock collapse sealed the San Jose Mine, all

thirty-three men were rescued in good health.

It was a miracle, for sure. All odds were stacked against the miners

surviving at all. Approximately 700,000 tons of rock had collapsed in

the mine. For seventeen days, in darkness and with almost no food or

liquids, the miners wondered if anyone would ever find them.

The miners rationed the few supplies they had one-half mile below

the surface, praying someone would be able to locate their small area

of refuge. They allowed themselves only two teaspoonfuls of tuna every

other day, a sip of milk, and a bite of a cracker. They learned to extract

water from the rocks that surrounded them.

You Can Become Resilient, Like the Human Body

191

The miners managed to conserve the minimal food and air. When

the rescuers finally bored a correct hole into their area some seventeen

days after the collapse, it was estimated that the miners would have

had only twenty-four hours of air remaining in their 600-square-foot

survival area.

They remained buried for over fifty-two more days, until a larger

hole could be carefully bored, just wide enough for a rescue capsule on a

pulley to be slowly and meticulously lowered to raise each one to safety.

What a tremendous will to live and what faith the miners had! When

life is in jeopardy, most people will do and endure anything in order to

survive. And the non-stop efforts from above on the part of rescuers

who would not stop working for sixty-nine days until the miners were

all saved, was inspiring to watch.
C-2012 J. Carinci from the book An All-Consuming Desire To Succeed