I'm watching the Chilean mine rescue de los 33 and have cried happy tears all morning. They're bringing up the 22nd man up right now. Did you hear about the 79 yr old retired miner whose son was down there? He went in the mine determined to get his son out, but had to give up because of the falling rock. Then he wanted to dynamite his way through...of course, he couldn't. Imagine his relief when the international team put together this the amazing "Fenix" in hopes of a miracle rescue.
Today, when his son came out....the father was in the hospital. I look forward to news coverage of their reunion. I relate to the families and their depth of despair at having a loved one trapped underground.
My father, Dawson E. Bussey (left in photo) worked "way down in the mines", under a mountain, for 34 years--sometimes as far back as 1 1/2 miles. I respect him more each day and understand him more than ever. Yes, he hit the bottle regularly, but how on earth did he go down there every day? Missing work wasn't an option. He worked on his knees in a low 30" tunnel, excavating a seam of coal.He did it for his family, just like the trapped Chilean miner who had promised his family he'd quit. He was close to paying off his family home, so decided to challenge the enormous weight of that deep, dark rock world one more time.
Daddy worked for us, too. He would rather have been a performer--a blues singer, a dancer, a musician, or an actor. He actually played music and sang on stage before his family migrated into Kentucky looking for a better life than Depression era Alabama had provided.
He first went into that dark underground dungeon for money. Later, he went solely for the 10 people who counted on him for food, shelter, heat, safety--and opportunity for education.
As a coal miner's daughter, I was pleased to hear from the underground miner from West Virginia that a bond exists, a brotherhood, so to speak, between miners everywhere. Once you've worked under the earth in those vulnerable unpredictable circumstances, no one but another miner can understand that isolated world.In that same spirit of unspoken connection,33 families have bonded into one as they wait for their loved ones to be freed. I rejoice for and with with those families.
One commentator called the miners "heroes" whatever they mine for--coal, gold, copper. He emphasized how people worldwide depend on all these minerals in our everyday lives in ways most of us take for granted. Flipping a switch for light means somewhere coal is burning to power generators. Copper is used for so many things--jewelry, sure, but other things we don't even see and take for granted--plumbing, cables & wires.
So much of our living, depends on the labor of underground miners. No matter what our political views on depleting nonrenewable resources, we need to remember these honorable laborers like my father and his hard working companions in the photo. They worked for years in a 30" underground tunnel for the Princess Elkhorn coal Company in David, Kentucky, my childhood home.
Next time you flip a light switch, use it as a reminder to salute underground miners everywhere.
Peace,
Judy
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