It's been a heady couple of days here in The Global Village. For a few hours Tuesday night lasting into however much you wanted to watch, around the world we gathered at the electric fire to watch the Lazarus Act in Chile. Absolutely. Awe.some.
The convergence of the technologies, computer, television and tele-communications, so often brings us multi-platform delivery of pap (at best) and informational empty calories at worst that moments like the one in Chile are the exception rather than the rule.
Speaking of exceptional, the interaction that resulted in the successful extrication of nearly three dozen men buried alive almost half a mile below the surface of the Earth since a mine cave-in in August, was all that and more. We can, it seems, when we must (and, sadly, only when we must), cooperate for a good greater than ourselves with grace and nobility.
I was a kid sitting on the top stair of our summer house in Harvey's Lake, Pennsylvania, when US astronauts walked on the moon. I was a damn sight older when I watched AC and OJ hijack national television for hours on end in a slow-moving white Ford Bronco and at an age I'd rather not lived to have become, as religious thugs destroyed architectural landmarks and shattered the dreams of a generation. The electronic seance joins us even when we don't feel or see the bond.
But this, this reaffirmation of 'of course we can!', is quite the tonic for a large part of the world that's been on its uppers for quite some time. I have no illusions that the positive vibrations it has generated will not be chased by the Dogs of War or Pestilence and Catastrophe by the dawning of the next news cycle, but if you're one so disposed to express gratitude to an Omnipotent Being, or maybe just joy at the triumph of human courage and ingenuity in all of this, it's been a good week to be here on the Big Blue Marble.
-bill kenny
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