Don't take your heroes for granted.

Back to the bookclub discussion of Beck Weather's Left for Dead (2 previous posts here). One of the most amazing things about Beck's rescue, was overcoming the impossibility of it even happening. He writes "Nobody told Peach about this. And since she didn't know it couldn't have been done, she did it." Very much like the poem of Edgar Albert Guest , sometimes the impossible is achieved, because you don't listen to logic. Your determination overrides the roadblocks.

Colonel Madan Khatri Chhetri, the brave man who took on all the risk in the rescue effort said, as to why he did it, that while he believed it was the right thing to do, that wasn't the reason he risked everything. "I didn't want to second guess myself everyday for the rest of my life."
I love the honesty of this reason. The hero in us all is there, and maybe not on the high moral ground as a superbeing, but just a person who feels they have to try. Not diminishing the extraordinary courage he exhibited in his actions, but those that do great things are not on a different plane from us until their choices elevate them. In They are all my family, Riordon says something along the lines of 'What kind of person decides to try this insane rescue without a proper plan? A person with no other choice.' Sometimes the greatest heroes just do what they feel they have to.

Beck acknowledges Madan as the most extraordinary person in the book. He took all the risk when really he didn't need to at all. He wasn't even on the mountain, but he put himself in great danger to save another. When Beck's wife writes a thank you letter to Madan, they learn that after all the lives he has saved, this was the first time he was ever thanked. "Maybe we all just take our heroes for granted."

So two things to learn from this book:
(1) Don't get caught up in the negative assumptions of others, just set your mind to it and make it happen.
(2) Don't assume those doing heroic things are any different to you (don't use that as an excuse to not do the same), and most of all, thank them. Acknowledge the good deeds around you.


As I didn't want to go into great detail of the rescue to save it for those who are yet to read the book, I'll share the details of this later rescue Madan performed, made more courageous when you know he's had experience with it not always working as planned.

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