I was listening today to Darrell Scott’s version of his own song “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” It’s a haunting story of a man and woman bent on leaving Harlan, Kentucky, and who keep having to live there due to economic security during the days of coal mining and one of them returns to mine the coal and send the money back to his family, but as the song intones: “he never left Harlan alive.” The song illustrates the way Central Appalachian people have always scraped out a living somehow, whether in the mines, the tobacco patches, or what have you. They seem to find a way in the midst of the difficulties of life. They survive. They don’t always thrive but they survive.

I’m reminded that Central Appalachian whites aren’t the only ones who do this. A PBS project is aimed at recording the work of a host of gallant scholars who are dutifully discovering and preserving the history of black culture in the mountains of Appalachia. “Black in Appalachia” will show the rich heritage of a subset of the population of the region for whom if life was cruel, had it crueler. I love reading their updates.

I think of the people pouring into our nation from the south. Their movement here is creating huge problems, but they are coming to escape worse situations. I can’t help but think of their journey as probable stories of resilience too. Some of them lived in mountains in Central America and other places.

What Central Appalachians have taught us is that the will to survive is almost strong enough to withstand anything. They (we) are sometimes characterized by outsiders as backward, behind-the-times, and somewhat odd, but we’re here. Generations of us have withstood difficulties and continued living one day at a time.

That’s why I can understand, even though I don’t ascribe to it, the religious practices of snake-handlers. They represent the indomitable spirit of the human soul, which, though beset by difficulty, can rise above.

Appalachia is the land of those who resist the odds, and rise above. Even when standing toe to toe with powers that are great.

I appreciate the spirit of survival that we have in this region and respect it when I see it in others in other places.