Usually I am one of those people who likes to get beyond negative events rather than dwell on them. (Infertility has certainly made that harder for me.)
So when in conversation about what happened to James Kim and whether he should have done things differently, I don't want to talk about it. I reason that rehashing the whole thing isn't going to help James Kim.
But as this column in the Anchorage Daily News points out, talking about James Kim's actions and what may have been better choices could help people stranded in similar situations in the future. I sure as hell would have no clue what to do if I were lost in the wilderness, having been raised as an urban chick. So I found this writer's observations particularly interesting. For example, he says, it is not uncommon for people suffering from hypothermia to start to shed their clothing. However, those of us south of the tundra interpreted this as James Kim's effort to leave clues. It's really a very interesting and different perspective on how to interpret the clues and how to survive if you are the one who is lost.
The Anchorage paper ran this article on the same day that The Oregonian ran an article about missteps and miscommunication by the various teams searching for James Kim and his family and how these issues resulted in the squandering of something that could have meant a different outcome for James Kim -- time.
One of David's favorite television shows is Seconds from Disaster, which takes a forensic look at disasters minute by minute to figure out what went wrong. And as David has pointed out many times, it's not one thing that causes a catastrophic failure. It's usually many small things that alone would be minor but all together end up causing a disaster.
Looking at all the things that went wrong won't help the Kim family cope with the loss of James. But maybe the lessons learned can help save others who find themselves in the same situation. That's the only time when looking back is helpful, I think.
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