The boys – cousins Jason Rivera, 9, and Elijah Martinez, 11 — recounted their harrowing ordeal a day after the miraculous rescue.
“We motivated each other to not go to sleep, keep yelling, keep moving our bodies, trying to break out,” Elijah said at a Friday news conference.
Once discovered, the boys were rescued by “the crew of officers and good Samaritans [who] dug through the snow, most of them using only their bare hands.”
Happy Thanksgiving. Never give up. Let’s leave it at that for the day. 😉
Some readers noted that I seemed pessimistic in a recent post. As if, with all that is going on in the world today, we are simply trapped in a hopeless situation.
Well, I was thrilled today to hear about Survivor Cow, a courageous cow who fell into a lake and swam to shore on a small island in the Irish countryside.
This brave bovine, while stranded, gave birth to a healthy calf, yet found herself in a precarious situation: no one was feeding her on this island–she was thought to have mysteriously disappeared–yet even if she were able to swim back to her fields, her young baby couldn’t possibly swim back to shore with her. So, she did what any cow in her situation would do. She ate.
And she ate. Week after week, she nursed her calf and ate everything green on that island. She did not panic and abandon her offspring. She did not allow the hopelessness to get to her, give up, and collapse in cow tears. She ate.
Months later, Kevin Carolan, a farmer neighboring the property of the long-missing cow, happened to stop and look out over his own property and the lake. Odd, he thought, as he gazed upon the perpetually green island. It was as if someone had mowed the lawn there. Finally he remembered his neighbor’s missing cow, and put two and two together. The cow and her calf were rescued this past weekend.
This story speaks to me for two reasons. First, it is a breath of fresh air just to see any good news at all (though WorldTruth.tv was the only coverage). Second, and more significantly, many of us find ourselves trapped on tiny islands of our own. We could waste quite a bit of energy thinking: how can I get off this island? how can I possibly feed my family? how do I survive, if not thrive, in these impossible circumstances?
These questions may indeed be worth asking, but they are not worth mulling endlessly, inducing stress and misery. In some impossible circumstances, it is merely by persisting–even if in some seemingly unrelated or unhelpful course of action, like eating the grass–that we actually manifest our salvation.
In the words of Hunter S. Thompson, “Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.”
So, yes, we may be living in a truly strange reality as humanity comes to grips with and overcomes The Powers That Be. And the odds may look quite unfavorable for humanity to overcome its shadow side. But, my fellow Survivor Cows, whatever tiny island you may be on– carry on, keep spreading the truth, and for goodness’ sake, keep eating the grass!
N.B. Survivor Cow is NOT to be confused with its antonym, Sheeple…