Thursday, January 14, 2016

Determination

January 14, 2016

Tonight I am sitting up in my bed, basking in the warmth and thinking about the movie I just saw. My friend Eric is an avid black powder shooter. Forty years ago a friend and I built our own black powder rifles from kits. Eric is building his second from scratch, and it's a beauty. So when he asked if I would go with him to see "The Revenant," I said yes.

The movie is Hollywood's take on the true story of Hugh Glass, a mountain man who in 1823 was so severely mauled by a Grizzly she-bear that no one in his trapping party thought he had any chance of surviving. Nonetheless, they patched him up as best they could, carried him for two or three days on a litter, until they decided it was too dangerous to continue, seeing as they were in hostile Indian territory. Glass was left in the care of two men, John Fitzgerald and 19 year old Jim Bridger, who would become quite a legend among mountain men in years to come. They were expected to watch over him until he died, which they fully expected would happen. But he didn't, so after a couple days, Fitzgerald persuaded young Bridger to abandon Glass and head for the safety of a trading post. Since equipment was valuable and dead men don't need it, they took his rifle, his knife, and his possibles bag of flint, tinder, and powder, leaving him completely defenseless.

Miraculously, he survived, first crawling, then hobbling his way through 250 miles of wilderness, avoiding contact with the hostile Ree Indians, till months later he showed up at the fort at the mouth of the Bighorn River. Fitzgerald had left for Fort Atkinson, so Glass followed, bent on revenge. But by the time he arrived, Fitzgerald had enlisted, and Glass couldn't touch him.

The movie takes plenty of liberty with history, as movies often do, but the true story of survival against all odds is amazing enough. And as I sit here in comfort, this true story of determination, strength, and persistence almost shames me. Glass persevered, fueled by thoughts of a revenge he never actually took, and an iron constitution. I am thankful tonight that I haven't had to face the kind of trials Glass faced, and pray that should such determination to live be necessary, that I would be equal to the challenge.

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