Recent local and international events have shown us all that having a fighting spirit will give us a chance to fight another day.
Thirty-three Chilean miners were rescued on Oct. 14 after having been trapped for more than two months a half-mile underground. They survived the longest time anyone has spent underground by rationing their food, encouraging one another and even singing - despite being told previously that they would be trapped until at least Christmas.
Locally, a 55-year-old woman fought off an attacker during her jog through Seward Park on Oct. 11. She was thrown to the ground and punched repeatedly by a young man, but because of her instinct to survive, she suffered only facial fractures including a broken nose - injuries that could have been much worse if she hadn't fought back.
"Not me, not here, not now," she recalled telling her attacker.
Even though the woman had never taken a self-defense class, she's helping to organize a self-defense class for other women to make sure others have the skills should they find themselves in a precarious situation.
Similarly, millions of people with life-threatening illnesses know they need the fighting spirit to outlive the pain of even the treatments they must endure. And a countless number of them beat the odds and their ailments.
These people serve as prime examples of what individuals can accomplish with a spirited fight in adverse situations. For them, it's a matter of life or death, but for the rest of us, it can mean just simply being resilient through this economic recession.[[In-content Ad]]
