Textbook Material

Mallory,

History was made this week.  On October 13, 2010, 33 South American miners were rescued from a mine in Chile.   When you open your 7th grade Geography Textbook and you begin to study about South America and more importantly Chile, you will undoubtedly study about the trapped miners, who after 69 days trapped 2200 feet underground were rescued and saved.  All are alive.  Not one life lost.  History was made, the story was written before our eyes, and in a few years you will see it in print…

I wasn’t going to touch on the story, because I didn’t think it would be something that either of you would remember.  I was proven wrong.  I had CNN on TV while I folded laundry on Wednesday afternoon.  I am a sucker for breaking news, so I was thrilled when I had a few quite minutes to watch the coverage of the rescue. Mallory, you came into the room and looked at the TV and started to ask questions…

Your first question was “Why are all those men dressed in orange?”

Picture courtesy of The Street

My answer, “Those men are in charge of rescuing 33 men who are stuck in a mine.” 

That answer brought on a question and answer session that went on for at least 15 minutes. I told you what a mine was and how far down into the Earth they were trapped (from our house to the Green Park). You watched the TV coverage with wide-eyes.  You asked things like “Does each man get to have his wife and kid up there waiting when he comes out of the rocket ship?”  Rocket ship--that’s what you called it.  You also asked why they wore sunglasses and why they had so many seat belts on while they rode in the rocket ship.  Your questions were thought provoking (for both you and me). 

It’s not often that History being made is full of glory and cheer and not sorrow and sadness.  You will one day open a text book with pictures of the events that you saw taking place at the tender age of four and a half.  You grasped history being made and it was so great to see.