Famously Dead - Pike River 29

Fame is a curious thing, attaching itself  apparently randomly to the rich, the poor, the highly educated, the unschooled, but also, to the dead. Death, under certain circumstances, can raise the profile of a previously unknown to a level of profound fame - thanks now to global networking.

But curiously it is not all deaths so bestowed and not even all collective or mass deaths - hundreds died in a Cambodian stampede in November, thousands die in natural events in the developing world on a regular basis, but it is almost with resignation we pass these events over and move onto the next news.
Trapped miners appear to have a far different destiny - in Australia, in Chile and in New Zealand in recent times saturation news coverage followed by apparent celebrity status accorded in the first two events to the survivors.

In New Zealand, at the Pike River Mine it has been a different story: no survivors from the 29 trapped miners, but the degree of "fame" accorded to these men appears equivalent to fallen soldiers, with words like honour, respect and brave used in their memory. To reinforce the military association a Roll Call of Honour was read at the Remembrance Service on December 2 and Prime Minister John Key made an analogy to past military engagements..

How is it that 29 ordinary working men, the youngest just aged 17 years, who have died during a working day, come to be accorded the virtual status of a soldier laying his life on the line for freedom or belief?  Is it the collective aspect, the sheer pain of so many fallen as one? Is it our British heritage? Death in battle is noble.
But in fact there are no accidents or chance events if you are able to view the continuum of existence. This consciousness integrates the repeated recycling of life - that each of us has lived many, many times before, in endless circumstances. This continual lesson in living can be seen as a gradual path towards ultimate realisation:  the nature of existence. Along the path are many stumbling blocks, regrets and resolutions - far too many to address and resolve within the span of one lifetime. Hence we live on, again and again.

To die en masse, as part of a group, says a lot about the history binding those who share that point of transition: that they share a common, collective past. Were these Pike River 29 once part of another group, sharing simultaneous activities? Were they once warriors or soldiers? They went happily to work on that fateful day, unusually jovial, according to their bus driver. Did they look forward to what that day would bring? Was this a beautiful redemption?