Given the motif of this blog, it’s not surprising that I am taken in with the recent news of mining accidents in China and in West Virginia. Who can forget Sago or Crandall Canyon, or even Ludlow. Mining is dangerous business, and I feel a bit of a distant kinship to miners of all stripes. I think they’re crazy, and I feel a little bit crazy myself.
I am intrigued by the huge risks miners take on a daily basis simply by going to work. All the safety programs and contingency plans in the world can’t account for all possible deadly scenarios. Add to that, in some cases, management which considers its labor force “expendable” to some extent, the risks just get higher. In many ways, a miner must look out for himself, and for his fellow miners. No one else is reliable to keep them safe. In many ways, they are on their own. Those of you with military experience, especially war zone experience, will understand that.
Then there are the risks the miners’ families take on in watching their husbands, brothers, uncles, and fathers (and many times wives, sisters, aunts, and mothers) leave every morning. No one really knows if they will see them at dinnertime. They stay behind, worrying and hoping, learning to live with the uncertainty and fear. The vast majority of days, for the vast majority of families, the fears are never realized. But the fears do not subside and the worries do not fade. For a great many, the nightmare comes true, as it has this past two weeks, keeping the specter of death and tragedy hanging low over the mining towns, like the smoke from the coal fires.
As you go, today, consider these people, their lives, and their deaths. Then, ask not for whom the bell tolls. The miners’ lives are a mirror of your own. Take a good look and let any smugness fall away. Take time to consider who and what you live for, and what prioritizes your time and energy. If you change your heart, even a little, and love more, even a little, their deaths will not be in vain.
It’s dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It’s dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.
