Help

There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about hikers who have gone missing on the mountain I enjoy looking at everyday. I do not have a television, a radio, or subscribe to a newspaper, but I have found myself searching online for their stories and updates, effected by the searchers loosing hope, finding the lost dead, and dealing with the winter weather delaying their schedule.

These men were not from Oregon. They were visitors and had heard the weather reports, but push forward on through their journey. One man was hurt, the other two men left him in a snow cave to search for help. Help, they did not find. Searchers found the wounded man's body in the snow cave this week, and still are searching for the other two.

There was a similar story around Thanksgiving, which had a lot of parallel themes. It happened in the wilderness of Oregon. The young family were visitors from California who did not know the weather conditions or the location they were traveling very well. They missed a turn and got off course and parked their car for the night. In the morning they found snow had fallen and trapped them in. Days went by, survival tactics began, and then somewhere along the way a decision was made by the young father to go and search for help. A few days later help found the mother and the two young daughters, but was too late for the father, who was found later dead.

It seems in some cases help finds us before we find it. I wonder if these people all would have stayed together would their stories have turned out differently. In the case of the young father he would still be alive, but for the hikers who knows.

What drives us to go and search for help? Is it the loss of hope, fear for our own life, a concern for those who we are stranded with, or is it an instinct we have within us to fight to survive?