Occasionally you read a story that just blows you away.
It may be about human endeavor … or suffering … or achievement … but you’re deeply affected by it.
Maybe it’s because you can’t imagine how you would cope in the same situation or that you can never even imagine the situation … but it changes something in you.
I’ve recently read 2 stories that have had this affect on me.
They’re both very different … one is about finding themselves, the other survival … and yet there are commonalities as well.
Blind belief.
Dumb luck.
A desire to see things through.
Acceptance of who they are or the situation they’re in.
An ability to only deal with issues when they become issues.
One is the story of Tom Turcich, who at age 17, spent the next 7 years of his life walking around the World.
The reasons behind it are both deeply personal and emotional … but the story he then takes us on is truly inspirational.
I don’t mean that in a ‘Hollywood’ type of way, but in its everyday humbleness and normality.
And it’s exactly because of that, that he explains things that have a lot of insight and learning.
One thing that really struck me was at the end, when he was asked if his journey had made him more confident in himself.
“That’s a difficult question to answer” … he says.
“It’s a kind of Dunning-Kruger. You know, the psychological study where the dumbest person in the room is the most confident? The more you know, the less confident you are. I think I was pretty confident at the beginning, but I was an idiot. Once you know you don’t know everything, you lose some of the confidence and become less sure about things.”
I love this. Love it.
It’s so true … though, judging by the bravado of so many of our political leaders – not to mention people like Andrew Tate and his blinkered followers – it seems not everyone understands that.
Well, I say that, but I feel they make it a deliberate choice.
It’s as if they realise being open to information and experiences would undermine their whole viewpoint on life … and as their entire value is based on their own delusional confidence, they’d rather choose to remain blinkered than to evolve.
The other story is about Annette Herfkens – the only survivor in a plane crash.
Her story, like Tom, is incredible and yet she also expresses it without drama or superlatives.
Again, it’s not a conscious attempt to play down her story to appear more enlightened to those who follow her … it’s a reflection of who she is and how she overcame the most tragic and challenging of circumstances.
And like Tom, what she learned from her experience has many implications on how we could all benefit in how to live our lives.
I don’t mean that in terms of ‘valuing what you have’ [though that wouldn’t be bad] … but more in terms of being quick to accept situations, however bad.
That may sound counter-intuitive – and it certainly is different to many of the ‘projection’ ideals spouted in countless self-help books – but based on how it liberated Tom and Annette from the harshest of situations, it certainly has merit.
They’re relatively long … but they’re worth it.
From a personal point of view, they’re two of the most powerful things I’ve read.
Have a good weekend.