Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

by Nando Parrado (2007) (* * * * */* * * *)

Noteworthy Excerpts (page #'s from paperback)

When we heard the news that the search had been canceled, it must have felt to Marcelo like the earth beneath his feet had begun to crumble.  God had turned his back, the world had been turned upside down, and all the things that had made Marcelo such a great leader -- his confidence, his decisiveness, his unshakable faith in his own beliefs and decisions -- now prevented him from adjusting to the blow and finding a new balance.  His certainty, which had served him so well in the ordinary world, now robbed him of the balance and flexibility he needed to adjust to the strange new rules by which we were battling for our lives.  When the ground rules changed, Marcelo shattered like glass.  Watching as he quietly sobbed in the shadows, I suddenly understood that in this awful place, to much certainty could kill us; ordinary civilized thinking could cost us our lives.  I vowed to myself that I would never pretend to understand these mountains.  I would never get trapped by my own expectations.  I would never pretend to know what might happen next.  The rules here were too savage and strange, and I knew I could never imagine the hardships, setbacks, and horrors that might lie ahead.  So I would teach myself to live in constant uncertainty, moment by moment, step by step.  I would live as if I were dead already.  With nothing to lose, nothing could surprise me, nothing could stop me from fighting; my fears would not block me from following my instincts, and no risk would be too great. (pp 111-112)

I saw the error I was making.  I had been thinking of the disaster as a horrible mistake, as an unscripted deviation from the happy story of the life I had been promised.  But now I began to understand that my ordeal in the Andes was not an interruption of my true destiny, or a perversion of what my life was supposed to be.  It simply was my life, and the future that lay ahead was the only future available to me.  To hide from this fact, or to live in bitterness and anger, would only keep me from living any genuine life at all.  Before the crash, I took so much for granted, but the mountains showed me that life, any life, is a miracle.  Now, miraculously, I had been granted a second chance to live.  It was not the life I wanted or expected, but I understand that it was my duty now to live that life as richly and as hopefully as I could.  I vowed to try.  I would live with passion and curiosity.  I would open myself to the possibilities of life.  I would savor every moment, and I would try, every day, to become more human and more alive.  To do any less, I understood, would be an insult to those who hadn't survived.

I made these vows with no expectation to be happy.  I simply felt it was my obligation to make the most out of the chance I had been given.  So I opened myself to life, and, to my great fortune, my new life began to happen. (p 251)