Thursday, March 24, 2011

127 Hours....or at least 24

Wow, I watched the movie 127 hours last night. It blew me away. Not so much the story but Aron's character - as in moral fiber. Caught in desperate measures, this man thinks about what he needs to successfully get out of his situation. He tries to save himself a number of times, then asks the universe for hardware, lengths of rope and 8 burly men. In between he suffers delirium and recalls happy memories and treasured moments with loved ones.

For anyone not familiar with the movie, it's about a mountain climber whose hand gets caught under a boulder and he chooses to cut off his own hand in order to save himself. He was caught for 127 hours. The story was widely acclaimed and, as appropriate, Aron appeared on many talk shows and became famous.

How many of us, caught in that situation - or any other - would spend the time wallowing in self-pity? How many hours would you wile away in "shouldas"?

What I really wonder, though, is how many followed this story with zeal and then when the excitement died down, went to the next story? How many of us look for that next miraculous story rather than living in our own story?

Each of us has miracles. Maybe not as dramatic as Aron's. Yet instead of living our lives, completely present, we look for distractions - that great story, the remarkable event, even the fun saga. How many were enthralled with Susan Boyle's singing? How many tuned in to see where Matt was dancing today? How many spend hours in YouTube or forwarding emails?

What if you spent 24 hours completely with yourself?

What would be the story there?

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