About a month ago, Ezra Thompson decided he was going to go out west on a hiking expedition in the mountains of Washington state. He has been really into the whole outdoorsy thing lately- rock climbing and snowshoeing and whatnot. He had professional equipment and all that jazz. Nonetheless, he managed to get himself stuck on a cliff for 4 days and stranded; he had to be rescued by a helicopter team when he didn't show up to the summer camp he was supposed to be working at. He was missing for a full day before they found him and another day before they could get to him because of treacherous avalanche conditions. Luckily, he's fine. Probably a bit scared and who knows when the next time he'll go on a mountainous trek will be, but he's fine.
He was supposed to arrive at camp Tuesday. He was called in missing Wednesday. They found him Thursday. And I think they rescued him either Friday or Saturday. My point is that all of this is happening halfway across the country. Shawn and I, 2 mere aquaintences of Ezra living 2 hours from our hometown, knew about it by Wednesday evening. Incidently (and unfortunately), we were the ones to inform Peder. (Why Jay and Laura didn't call their elder son is beyond me, by the time we found out, all of Paynesville School System knew about it as well as the majority of the area churches, so why no one bothered to call Peder I still don't know). When a person goes missing or is in need of assistance, a small town pulls together. Churches whip out their prayer lists, schools do the same (F*#$ the first amendment, a life is at stake, let's pray!), and by Thursday morning at the very latest, everyone in the Stearns, Kandiyohi, and Meeker area was on Ezra Thompson's side. And by that time, even his brother in Nebraska had been informed :)
People who have probably never talked to Ezra left him public facebook messages, wishing well. His rescue went smoothly, and now that all is back to normal, he can continue being the shy and quiet guy that had his few days of WOW, WAIT, WHAT?!
My point is, you can't get that in a big town, or a small city. You can't get that in a community where people don't know each other. And for one of the first times in the last 3 years, I caught of glimpse of what it might have been like when everyone was worried about me in 2008. It makes me grateful for where I came from, and I hope that it continues to be that way for future Paynesvillites who find themselves between a rock and a hard place- in Ezra's case, literally.
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