Survivor

Recently, I’ve been thinking about surviving. Surviving what, you may ask. I’ll get to that in a bit.

First off, let me say, I’ve always prided myself as being thought of as a survivor. So, for this column’s sake, as I was writing, I googled the psychological definition of a survivor which read, “A survivor mentality is a frame of mind that promotes self-empowerment and a person's ability to overcome a traumatic event. Focusing on the ability to survive rather than being a victim can help prevail over life's challenges instead of being held back or defined by them.” And, I thought, that’s me.

Then it went on to say,

“Survivors are good troubleshooters because they are handy and creative and come up with easy solutions to difficult problems. They want and need things to work smoothly and easily, and they possess common sense to make it happen. Synergy is their primary motivation in life.” And again, I thought, yeah, that’s me.

However, the next line canceled it all out, “Survivors are not prone to complaining.”

Okay, so there’s that.

Now to the reason I’ve been thinking about surviving lately, beside the extreme heat and climate change that is going to get us all, one way or another at this point, as we sit there thinking, just turn up the air conditioner, was the big front page news story that not too long ago rang across the world.

Remember, June 14th, the headline of the 4 kids who survived a plane crash in the Amazon jungle?

I’m gonna stop right there. Who, in real life, when they get on a plane and thinks of it crashing, ever, I mean ever, thinks they will actually survive. Which, I hate to admit, is the reason I barely watch the attendants anymore when they give the mandatory life jacket spiel. Plus, I’ve lately taken to sitting by the emergency exit for what seems like more room and saying yes to opening the door in case of an emergency, as if.

Truth is, unless your pilot’s nickname is Sully, and what are the chances of that happening a second time around, let’s just quote Hunger Games for a minute……”may the odds be ever in your favor” God forbid one finds oneself in an actual plane crash.

Okay, back to the news story. Not only did these 4 kids aged 13, 9, 4, and 1…yes 1, survive, they survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle. First let me say, may their mother rest in peace…and the other two grown-ups who did not survive…may they rest in peace. I can’t even comprehend the circumstances these kids found themselves in.

However, me being the Jewish mom that I am, I actually thought, after reading the tragedy and miracle of this whole news story, was that, should my very smart son, and I love him beyond existence, should he ever find himself surviving a plane crash in the Amazon jungle, at any age, would most likely have minus zero, to zero survival skills to survive 40 days, let alone one.

And then I thought, I have failed as a mother.

My thought process continued on to rationalizing that of course he wouldn’t survive 40 days in the Amazon jungle because he wasn’t born in the Amazon like those children. And that makes sense, right?

Still, I couldn’t leave it at that. I started thinking how completely far removed from the natural world my son has been brought up in. I’ll never forget the look of terror on his face when I dropped him off at Camp Ramah Darom in the wilds of Georgia for a month long stay in a Jewish sleep away camp. That’s like a 4-star hotel glorified camping trip. When I went to drive off, he stood there paralyzed as if I actually dropped him off alone in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

All that to say, what those 4 Indigenous kids who survived that terrifying and tragic ordeal reminded me, was how awfully far away our “civilized” society is from being one with the natural world. Besides feeling absolute gratitude that they actually survived, their amazing real- life story gave me pause to think of how far we have grown from a connection to our planet and with it, our ability to survive…and yes, ”may the odds be ever in our favor.”

Last, but not least, not to worry, next time I get on a plane, I’m going to pay attention to the attendants as they demonstrate the life vests and read how to open the emergency exit door.