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This documentary movie is billed
as a true story of survival in a Godless universe.
I respect mountaineer Joe Simpson's stated intention to exclude religious
paraphernalia from what could equally well be billed as a story of miraculous
survival against all odds.
Joe remarks that he was brought up as a Catholic. But when he lay abandoned
at the bottom of a crevasse, with a smashed leg, in sub-zero temperatures,
it did not occur to him to say a few Hail Marys and ask God to get him
out of there. He was thrown back upon his own resources.
Joe met many more "little deaths" during his descent of the 21,000 foot
Siula Grande eighteen years ago.
This Englishman-man of action, fit, young and with the world at his feet-endured
an experience of weakness and vulnerability that few live through, and
even fewer would dare to try to talk about.
He describes lying under the stars, becoming part of the rocks upon which
he lay, as if he had been there, and would be there, for centuries.
He hears a voice, his own voice, but curiously unempathetic, commanding
him to keep crawling, not caring that he was tired and injured.
Joe's story does not tinker with the experience of awe, in that word's
root meaning. The void remains the unknown and unknowable, but Joe is
changed by his encounter with it.
This movie is framed in the context of seven days-the parallel with the
Christian mythology of seven days of Creation is obvious, and the temptation
is to draw analogies with familiar spiritual experiences.
However, a unique value of this documentary is that Joe attempts to frame
a new language for authentic religious encounter.
We know his experience is authentic for several reasons.
Firstly, Joe's immediate and urgent desire on seeing Simon, was to forgive
his friend for leaving him for dead on the mountain.
Secondly, Joe at no time claims hero status for his survival. He is meticulously
truthful about the weakness and humiliations he suffered.
Thirdly, after two years and six operations Joe was back mountaineering.
Fourthly, he has written a book, made a movie and is on the international
circuit telling the story of Touching the Void.
Forgiveness, humility, desire for the 'unknown', and telling the story
are what Christians would call fruits of the Spirit.
Personally I am sorry that the Christian mystical tradition has been so
neglected for so long in the Church, that Joe Simpson (and millions of
others in the past few generations) have been abandoned on the mountainside
with no adequate language to address the void.
Touching the Void
Webslinks:
Internet Movie DataBase
entry
Joe Simpson
official website
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