As we were looking through our readers on this past Thursday, one of the kids spied a photo of a young man, dressed in hiker's garb, with an artificial right arm--hook attached. It immediately caught their attention as well as mine. Who was this guy? Why did he have a hook for an arm? What happened? We soon found out. You can check out his photo right below.
In late April of 2003, this adventurous 27-year old was hiking in the canyons of south eastern Utah. Aron Ralston was hiking alone, with no one knowing his real whereabouts, when a tragic accident occurred. One of the boulders he was climbing down became dislodged and Aron found himself with his right forearm pinned, literally "between a rock and a hard place."
As the kids started to read his story, we were amazed and inspired by what he had to do to survive. For 5 days, he found himself pinned, unable to free himself from the boulder. He took tiny sips periodically from what little precious water he had. By the fourth day, beginning to be sure that it was his time to die, he took a small knife and carved out the date of his birth and when he anticipated his date of death would be along with his name on the wall beside him. Aron wanted to be sure that someone would know it was him. But on the fifth day, he awoke with a renewed spirit and decided that if he was going to live, he was going to have to amputate his arm. And he was going to have to do it with the only tool he had on him, a fairly dull pocket knife. Miraculously enough, Aron was able to do it and free himself from the boulder. His story is told in book and movie. Perhaps you have seen it or read his book.
I never saw a group of kids so FULL of questions as they were after we read the story. They were intrigued by his experience and wanted to know more. So we got online and read as much as we could about him. And they are STILL talking about the guy who "amputated his own arm" to save himself....all from a story that we didn't even plan to read for the day.
I asked the kids this question: "If you were him, if you were in his predicament, could you do what he had to do to survive? In other words, would you be able to cut off your own arm?" By a majority, almost all of them said they would be able to. And their reason? It's because they still wanted to live! They wouldn't mind having to have an artificial arm with a hook as long as they didn't have to die. Oh wow, the "human spirit" was alive and well in our school that day!
After we read the story, one of the kids said to me, "Mrs. Miller, aren't you glad that you didn't have to amputate your arm when you wrecked your bike?" My response to that question was "Boy I sure am!" AND PEGGY MILLER THOUGHT THAT SHE HAD IT BAD! Geesch-"old lefty's" still attached, 5 fingers and all! A good lesson for me on a day when I was a little bit whiny about still not being able to use the left arm perfectly. "Wake up" call #139 from God. I told you, I am a slow learner!
My friends, have you ever found yourself "between a rock and a hard place?" Have you ever been in situations that it didn't seem like you could win either way but you still had to make a choice? We all do from time to time~seems like that's part of life as we know it. Maybe you are there right now. Right now, you could probably answer this statement: Our family is really struggling with _________________________________. You could fill in the blank with anything from lack of finances, loss of job, issues of poor health, the need to find a care home for an aging parent, trouble finding suitable and affordable housing or a billion other things. It happens to ALL of us~You are most certainly not alone!
There is the sweetest little kindergarten girl at my school who is a fellow member of the "broken arm" club. She's in one of those long-arm casts, the kind that drove me crazy for 6 weeks. At this point in time, she's about a month behind my progress. At the breakfast table this morning at school, I noticed that she was sitting there with her tray of food untouched. As I went over to see how it was going, I saw why. She couldn't open up her cereal, milk, juice, or yogurt~oh yeah, been there, done that! I asked her if I could help her and the look on her face said what no words would ever be able to explain. That expression said to me...."Mrs. Miller, I want this to be over last week already! I'm tired of this cast~" and I sure did understand. When I left her table, my parting words were....."Don't give up. It gets better." And for the first time in a very long time, I actually believed it myself.
I guess the moral to this story was "DON'T GIVE UP-EVER!" and that is what I wish for all of you my dear friends and family. The old saying "This too shall pass" is so appropriate for most things we seem to have to endure in life. And if all else fails, just do as the poster admonishes you to do-"When you think you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!" Dear friends, please remember to hang on.
And as my favorite "tv" guy, Red Greene says, "Remember, we're all in this together."
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