I’m almost to the end of the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, an astonishing story about Olympic track star Louis Zamperini’s survival during WWII. Not only did he float on a raft in the middle of nowhere for forty seven days, but he also endured harsh and endless torture as a Japanese POW for almost two-and-a-half years.
During the time I was reading the book, I at one point found myself whining about the dust blowing into my eyeballs while walking down the street and asked myself how many days I thought I could last on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with sharks circling underneath! Yoiks. That ended my perceived suffering, post haste!
I’m fascinated by what makes people survive such hardships. Zamperini was on the raft with two other men and he speculated that the man who eventually died had shown signs of hopelessness soon after the crash, while Zamperini and the other survivor hadn’t entertained the idea that they might die almost the entire time. It’s hard to imagine that just thinking positively would keep one alive in that situation, but could that be it? And what kept all those POW’s alive under such extremely brutal conditions? I’m sure there are many theories about it, but all I know is that I’m inspired to trudge on even when I become blinded by dust for a few seconds.
–Louis Zamperini, 94, at his Hollywood home. The flame still burns in him as he holds the olympic torch he carried at the 1984 Olympic Games. (Brad Graverson)
