I saw the film Alive many years ago and it was one that moved me profoundly and taught me something important about mankind, and I never forgot it. Today I finished listening to the story written by Nando Parrado of his ordeal in the Andean mountains in the early 70's, and how he escaped.

My cheeks are warm and my eyes red and sensitive from tears. It's a very real story, honest and raw, baring truths about the human mind, body and society. So many little things that led to the plane crash, and to each step of the ordeal of their deaths and survivals. Had one thing been different they may all have died, and we would never know what happened, all the thoughts they had and things they experienced during that 72 days of starvation, dehydration, freezing and watching friends die in the snow could have been lost to the winds. That's a terrifying thought to me, to be lost to the world, and never heard.

I think had they not been a team of fit young rugby players, they may not have survived, had it been a regular plane of middle aged and older people, strangers, women and children. Had the social structure between them been different, it could have ended up like Lord of the Flies, or Midnight the Doctor Who episode, where most of the people come to pointing the finger at who is to blame, while others sit by and feebly cannot form an opinion of their own.

Anyway, I'm reeling in wow right now. Think I need to see the movie again.