THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE

They were odd. They were loners. Often, even in the old days, it wasn't always clear where they came from. Sometimes, they were someone's "attic uncle". But, sometimes they were drifters who came one day and stayed the rest of their lives. Often, they had conditions that would be considered, "mental" today, or maybe they weren't very bright. The never seemed to be married or have kids, or if they had families at one time, they didn't seem to any more. If they had parents, they often lived with their elderly mothers. But often they seemed to have no family at all.

In the small town where I grew up they were much more visible than they are in the urban scene I work in today. When everybody knows every one else it is not so hard to spot them. In those days they had homes of a sort, some time shacks or tiny apartment or a single room tacked on to another building. They usually had jobs of some sort.

Earlier in my life, in the small town environment, I knew them because they often did farm work and I lived on a farm. My dad was gregarious and usually knew them and hired them. It was in those days that I learned to look for them and to see them.

I see them still because I know to look for them and I know who they are. You tend to see them around the edges of l situations half hidden in day light, but they tend to come into full view only when the light is dim. They seem to cultivate invisibility. Only in the twilight hours do they ever become completely visible and even then you had to look to see them.

Today, we would describe them as marginal and they often become homeless. There is very little tolerance for them in regular society where they are misfits. I never understood them as a child. I'm not sure I understand them now.

But they are still there, I still see them. I call them the "twilight people".

ALIVE

I read the book Alive by Piers Paul Read about the crash of a Uruguayan plan in the high cordillera of the Andes back in the early '70's fairly soon after it happened. After 70 some days trapped in the high mountains, two of the survivors climbed a 3000' peak (starting at 12,000 feet) and walked a total of 10 days in all to find herders using the high pastures in Spring. Of 45 people on the plane 16 survived. It is reasonable to say that none would have survived it they hadn't been able to plan and execute the walk out. How they did that is among the most compelling survival stories I've read. A movie of the same name was released in 1993 starring Ethan Hawke.

30 years later Nando Parrado wrote Miracle in the Andes.

These 2 works of non-fiction have given me massive into insight into the strategy of survival in extreme situations. They have a profound impact on how I have survived my own difficulties and how I approach my work from day to day. A day will come when I will discuss this more. But for now, consider this background.

By the way, Alive and Miracle in the Andes are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. They are both sturdy well written books that tell the important an important story. But the truth of this story is terrifying.

More information is available on the web at VIVEN! and you can follow the links from that site to individual survivors sites and some other very interesting links. Since the 30 th anniversary of story there has been an increasing interest in this story and there are a number of interviews and articles that tell what the survivors are doing now and how they dealt with the trauma and went on with there lives. By the way they have just started Foundacion Viven.

So, what is my interest? Well, this is a classic in survival literature and has many lessons for tactics for survival both physical and psychological. These young men were a team and because of that they had some survivors. This is a very good model for how a team forms and reforms to deal with the changing challenges they have faced.

It was a fascinating discovery to me to find that my internal model for how to do crisis work is based on reading Alive many years ago.