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Colombian Reality and Your Response

Last I checked Colombia was part of reality and not terribly different than living in other places. Life presents problems and Colombians have their share. But wherever you are and whatever happens, you have the option of how to respond.

I want to give two brief examples of things that have happened to me in Colombia. I was kidnapped by guerrillas and I had hemorrhoid surgery. In both cases I was prepared to die. After all, death is part of reality, too. But I chose to confront each situation in a friendly way.

Colombians are wonderful people I reasoned, so Colombian guerrillas must be wonderful people, too. And I was right. At any moment they could have killed me. (At any moment any of us could die suddenly). The way I chose to confront the reality of the situation (and I hope no one thinks this is a Disneyworld approach!) was to treat my kidnappers with respect (they did have the machine guns) and realize they are not monsters. They are human beings acting consistent with their ideology.

We had great talks about many subjects: literature, history, etc. They also respected me except when I criticized their ideology and methods. That made them angry and threatening. I was transferred from the urban safe house to "the mountains of Colombia." One night I suggested a joke festival. We all took turns telling jokes. A good time was had by all!

I took the whole experience as a meditation retreat, all expenses paid by the guerrillas. They catered the food and provided comfortable accomdations (a hammock with mosquito netting.) You could respond differently to the situation and create much different, much less pleasant experience.

We are all just human beings on a journey, here on this planet for a short while. I could have been killed and I was ready for that, too. It is just part of reality.

With the surgery I took the same approach always operating (no pun intended!) from the idea that Colombians are wonderful people, always being respectful, and my experience on the operating table (conscious with only a spinal block) was similar. I told the surgeons jokes as they operated. A good time was had by all!

You cannot control what experiences you have in Colombia (or anywhere else).

Things happen unexpectedly.

What you can control is your reaction.

Relaxing and enjoying has been a good strategy for me in all situations.

Plátano

By platano on Mar 13, 2005, 11:16 in Friendly Talkzone.

Tinto (Moderator) says on Mar 14, 2005, 18:03:

You might want to post this in the "Friendly Forum." When messages get posted as a "story topic" they tend to get lost (the stories were used in a previous website format).

Note: same comment about your recent Medellin message and a couple of messages that will show up better in the archives if they are placed in the "solo en español" forum.

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rocinante says on Jan 14, 2006, 14:57:

This is the only way to handle this type of situation. Rambos need not apply.

So my question to you is who got paid more - the Kidnappers or the Doctors?

"World economic indicators point to a democrat winning 2008. It will surely be Obama. Not that the US president actually runs the US." Feb 5, 2008

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