You've encountered the question so many times: If you could invite 5 people to dinner, dead or alive, who would you invite? It's a fun little exercise that might reveal your favorite author, favorite world leader, favorite spiritual influence, most valued ancestor, etc.
But suppose that in real life, you are stuck in a collapsed mine in Chile for more than two months and you receive a message from the rescue team: "Choose no more than 3 people to meet you here when we pull you out." Dead presidents and Ben Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr are not eligible. Who are those 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th close friends or family members to just miss the invite list to the rescue party at the top of the mineshaft?
It's a fascinating thought, kind of like attending a funeral and hearing the eulogy and thinking, "If I died today, what could be said about me by the people who knew me best? What do people think that I care most about? How would the eulogist finish this statement: If he could be standing here in this moment, he would want you to know...yada yada yada..."
In crisis, reality takes center stage while pretenses are cleared away. You may really like your favorite beer-drinking buddy, but when selecting 3 really important, highly valued people, that dude may not make the cut. One miner's experience may renew and strengthen his religious faith, while another miner's experience may cause him to completely drop religion. After two months in a collapsed mine, one fellow might declare that when he is free, he will immediately make changes to spend more time with loved ones. Another fellow might decide to take an indefinite sabbatical and live on the ski slopes of Colorado until his money runs out.
What sort of reality would emerge for you? What pretenses would fall away?
No comments:
Post a Comment