Friday, October 15, 2010

Feel Good Friday: Chilean Miners Rescue.. and the Power of Music

It's been a fairly uneventful week in my life. Just the usual stress of work and family. Trying to keep a household together. Aside from my own mundane life, this week was actually not that uneventful.

After 70 days of being underground, Chilean miners were finally pulled from the depths of the Earth. Reunited with their families and friends, mostly unscathed. A truly beautiful and heart warming story.

One particular story seemed to reach out to me this week. The man named Edison Pena.



Chilean Miner: Elvis Got Me Through the Ordeal
Posted by Devon Thomas

Rescued Chilean miner and avid Elvis Presley fan Edison Pena has gotten a VIP invitation to Graceland, the music lrgend 's longtime home in Memphis.

Pena, who is 34 and married, was the 12th miner pulled from the collapsed mine at 10:11 a.m. Wednesday.

He told reporters it was Elvis who helped him get through the 70 days in which he was trapped underground.. He even led fellow miners in singing Elvis songs.

When Graceland officials heard about this, they sent along a care package with a boxed set of CDs and picture of " the "king" and asked that it be lowered into the mine for Pena.

Now, Pena has been invited for a special tour of Graceland where fans line up daily to see where Elvis lived for 20 years before he died on Aug. 16, 1977, and to view his gravesite.

Kevin Kern, an Elvis Presley Enterprises spokesman, says the company also sent various gifts to Chile, including a picture, DVDs, CDs and sunglasses.

Pena was reportedly among the most depressed of the trapped men and asked rescuers to send down a photo of the sun. He tried to run every day for exercise.

Kern says he does not expect Pena in Memphis any time soon, saying there are more important things Pena needs to take care of.


It seems to me that most anyone I've ever met or known has a music story. A band or a song that has gotten them through a rough patch. Clearly, Edison's go to music is Elvis. Personally, not my favorite or one that I would go to.. But I can dig it.

This week I've turned to Adele for some sort of solace in my little crazy world. What music do you usually turn to in hopes of raising your spirits?

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