People have asked if there are signs of intelligent life in the Universe. Are we alone? This begs the question, are humans intelligent?
No other species kill like our species kills each other. None other gets addicted to drugs and alcohol. None rape each other. None commit self-harm.
This contradicts human intelligence.
However, no other species can create a David, a 9th symphony, a Paradiso, or a song like Stairway to Heaven.
The rescue of Jessica McClure epitomizes our humanity and our intelligence. In face of great odds, people who team together and work together can produce amazing results.
In October 1987, Jessica McClure Morales, widely known as "Baby Jessica" fell into a well in her aunt's backyard in Midland, Texas at the age of 18 months.
Over the next 56 hours, rescuers worked to free her from the 8 in well casing, about 22 ft below the surface. The story garnered worldwide attention.
Years after her rescue, McClure graduated from Greenwood High School in a small community near Midland. On January 28, 2006, she married Daniel Morales and now they have two children, a son born in 2007 and a daughter born in 2009. When McClure turned 25 on March 26, 2011, she received a trust fund, composed of donations from around the world, which she discussed using for her children's college and which she used to purchase her home, less than 2 miles from the well into which she fell.
Not all ended well for some involved.
Paramedic Robert O'Donnell developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the rescue and later struggled to cope with the abrupt decline in recognition and fame that he had experienced in the immediate aftermath of his heroic act. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in April 1995.
But for others, the rescue was inspiring.
In 2010, blues musician Charlie Musselwhite released an album titled The Well. In the title song, he credits McClure's ordeal for inspiring him to quit drinking.
If we work together in business and in life, we can consider our species intelligent. We have the spark of divine inspiration that really does set us apart from nature.
We design buildings, build communities, rescue trapped infants, swim across the English Channel, climb Mount Everest, and can love each other. All it takes is teamwork and belief.