Wednesday, October 13, 2010

It's Light as a Rescue Way Down in the Mine

The miners' rescue is, for the moment, just wonderful, and whatever else can and will be said, that moment will remain wonderful. It's an oddly old-fashioned story. Persistent, dogged work, never giving up, a refusal to accept failure, a triumph of engineering expertise, a nation caring about some of its people. An action, to help others, yielding success. Free of ideology: not immediately expropriated as a triumph of the free market or a demonstration of liberal perfidy, the initial disaster Obama's fault while the rescuers all keep a copy of 'Atlas Shrugged' in their breast pockets lest they need a glimmer iof inspiration in dark moments.

We can be better than we are. We damned well should be. We might even find it rewarding. Those rewards might, just might, not entirely be limited to those defined in dollars and cents. Money separates us. An event like the miners' rescue draws us together. We could use some of that. Were we open to the possibility, we could find it. And that's how I think about seeing these guys come up into the open, alive because of hard work and sane because somebody outside their prison gave a shit and told them so. Are we going to be working the capsules, ropes and wheels? Or will we be content with our prison?

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