It's that time again and various organizations are announcing their Man of the Year, Person of the Year etc. Time magazine anointed Mark Zuckerberg, the inventor of Facebook (disputed). That strikes me as odd given that he is by all accounts a cold fish who has made a lot of money. Ironic, really, to have been behind a social networking site which has indeed been very influential.
In one sense I would go with Julian Assange even though he is extremely polarizing. These awards are supposed to recognize influence, not likability. No one can reasonably deny his influence this year. I also admire anyone with the courage to stand up to power.
But I am going to go with my heart.
The Chilean miners.
It was definitely the feel good story of the year. Just a bunch of guys (a couple of women, too, I think) who went to work one morning somewhere in rural Chile. Thankless work, more or less anonymous. And then their mine collapsed with them in it and through the passing days and weeks they became world wide news. They were down there for 69 days before being improbably rescued. I know you can do the math but that's 10 weeks in the ground, folks. Can you imagine the psychological hell they were trapped in?
A rescue community sprang up over the site, consisting of family and friends. And pretty soon news media. Some of them lived in that refugee camp of sorts for weeks themselves.
I don't know about you but as time went by I didn't have much hope any of them were going to live.
And then, somehow, they did. I will use the word miracle and not apologize for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGecqHnN2gQSince their rescue they have been invited all over the world. Soccer matches in Europe as honored guests. One of them ran the NYC Marathon. He had actually been training in the mine, if you can believe that. What does that say about the power of the human spirit?
