Far Away and Very Scared
What do we do with this information? Jill Carroll is twenty-eight years old. She's two years younger than I am. What can she be going through?
I am reading Terry Anderson's memoir right now, one of many books I have been meaning to read to prep for the show I am working on in the spring. Apparently he "finds religion" at some point during his seven years of captivity (I haven't gotten that far in the book yet) and that is what enables him to survive.
I can't imagine I would ever "find religion" in any situation.
So, given the circumstances, what would I find?
posted by SAS @ 6:51 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I have read this post and wanted to comment a couple times, but keep stopping myself.
Finding religion to me many times means finding a template by which someone else is living their life. I, for one, do not do well shoving myself into a rigid template.
Maybe instead of finding religion one could find spirituality, or self recognition, or peace of mind in the way life simply propels forward, sometimes with us, and sometimes irregardless of us.
It may not be "religion" that you "find," but deep in the recesses of your brain you will "find" whatever mechanism you need to keep things in perspective. Humanity has this capability. One may say he finds religion, meaning he communes with his God who gives him comfort and the wherewithal to maintain. Others say they hang in there through some other form of spirituality.
Either way I believe that whatever this mechanism is, it transcends what we are able to imagine.
As I continue to read Anderson's account I am amazed by how actively he kept these mechanisms working. For seven years. Seven years. That is phenomenal.
When you think about it we use these mechanisms in everday life --for the sake of survival. For guys like Terry Anderson and John McCain who are snatched and held as hostages and prisoners of war, yet live to tell about it, we wonder, "How did they manage to LIVE through that and not come back so horribly and psychologically damaged?" I can't answer that. But I do believe we employ various degrees of whatever it is that "keeps hope alive" within us.
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