A left handed survivor

Today I’m going to talk about the book, “Taken on Trust”, an autobiography written by Terry Waite. 

Terry was working for the release of hostages when he was duped into becoming one himself.  He spent 1,763 days in captivity as a prisoner in Beirut.  Four years of that time was spent in solitary confinement, chained to a wall, deprived of all natural light and company. 

When he was first led into an empty cell and they closed the door behind him, he made a promise to himself:  no regrets.  No sentimentality.  No self-pity.

To occupy his mind through the countless solitary hours, he decided to write his own autobiography.  He had no pen or paper and wrote the entire autobiography in his own head, going through his life in minute detail. 

Terry is left-handed.  He married a left-hander and two of their four children also turned out to be left-handed. 

Ed Wright, in his book “A Left handed History of the World” talks about the theory that left-handers tend to be lateral, fantasist and experimental thinkers.  In other words, they have more variety in the way they think than right-handers do.  They have the ability to adapt, transform, be agents of change, make unorthodox connections, be experimental and see beyond the status quo and as a result, often make the seemingly impossible come true.

These are all traits that can obviously come in very handy when trying to figure out a way to survive in a difficult situation.   Terry’s highly resourceful and  unorthodox approach to keeping his mind and emotions balanced and his sanity intact is a great living example of these left-handed traits in action. 

Not only did he survive a traumatic experience, he survived remarkably well.  That’s not to say his journey wasn’t at times a desperate struggle.  He often still desperately struggled against crippling loneliness and boredom.

Although he recounts the details of his life before he was imprisoned, I found his inner journey in captivity the most interesting read by far.  Even in solitary confinement, he set himself goals (like getting fit), tried to stick to a daily routine and got on with the writing work he wanted to do, just as we would do in ordinary life.  

Anyway, it highlights the triumph of the human spirit and it’s not a bad read.  Check this book out on Amazon by clicking on this link.