Beyond heroic

While we've all been absorbed in the remarkable rescue in Colombia, Sheila Liaugminas does a good job of patching together the heroic nature of Ingrid Betancourt, who was in captivity over six years--three of which were spent chained night and day. And then she was on the move.

Ms. Betancourt said the jungle was “an absolutely hostile world.” She described “no sun, no sky, a green ceiling — it was too much, it was too much, a wall of trees, a lot of insects, each more dreadful than the next.” She said she walked perhaps 200 miles a year. “I walked with a hat pulled down over my ears because all sorts of things fall on your head, ants that bite you, insects, lice, ticks, with gloves because everything in the jungle bites, each time you try to grab on to something so that you don’t fall, you’ve put your hand on a tarantula, you’ve put your hand on a thorn, a leaf that bites.

Read about her faith, her hope, her tenacity, her ability to forgive. Tremendous for us, and a story to share with the children this summer. Let them see authentic heroism without gadgets, buttons, super powers or appeals to the dark side.

UPDATE: It would seem that our heroine has gone to Lourdes to thank the Blessed Mother for her release. Two things: all I see on her part is gratitude--despite the horrors she could be dwelling on. Good lesson for all of us.  And secondly, how can she be so very exquisite--even after years of jungle captivity?? Is there something about this "eldest daughter of the Church" thing that trickles down to every French woman...?

   

Comments

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

Genevieve, what do you think of this take on Ingrid Betancourt:

http://rosesandjessamine.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-marianne.html

It's a sad side to what I had thought was a completely joyful story.

[gsk]

It's filled with ironies: The husband works for her release, only to divorce her upon her return; the president that people publicly hate, although secretly they like him because of his stance against radical Islam; the conferral of a great honour (well-deserved) by a man who has shredded his own, personally; and finally a Bastille Day recognition of a woman of faith on the very day (1789) when the forces of evil were launched against the Church--making martyrs of countless souls.

I do hope her coming years are filled with joy. She is a remarkable woman who has endured much.