Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Written by Aron Ralston
Reviewed by Catherine Pulsifer

We all find ourselves in situations that at times seem hopeless. And, we all have the choice to do nothing or take action.

In this book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston finds himself in a life or death situation, and ends up taking the drastic action of amputating his right arm. He could have given up, he could have felt sorry for himself, but he kept focused on freeing himself.

This is a true story of a man who lives his passion of mountain climbing and hiking. The story tells of his experience of being trapped in a canyon for six days, eventually running out of food and more importantly, water. The most amazing part of this book is reading Aron’s thoughts. Close to dying, he stayed focused on trying to find ways to free himself. He consistently kept taking action to solve the situation that he was in. To quote from the book, “Everything else – the pain, the thoughts of rescue, the accident itself-recedes. I’m taking action.”

With his arm trapped, he thought of other ways to perform the things that he needed to do. He recalled a TV program of a man who had no hands and used his feet to pick up items. That memory inspired him to use his feet to retrieve his keys that fell into a crack.

Once rescued, Aron starts the road to recovery which is a difficult one. But, even with everything he was through, he had no regrets about the choices he made. He learned much and has moved on with his life.

One of Aron’s inspirational quotes:”When we find inspiration, we need to take action for ourselves and for our communities. Even if it means making a hard choice, or cutting out something and leaving it in your past.”

His story is an inspirational one that reinforces our power of choice! It is a story of a person with a passion, and his actions to follow that passion. We would recommend the book; it is available from Amazon.

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