Image by F.G.O. Stuart (1843-1923) – http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=3817223&extra=page%3D1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2990792
There is a phrase to describe people, often strangers, as
“ships passing by the night”.
The phrase is meant to describe how fleeing the intersection of the two lives can be, how briefly people we don’t know can flicker in and out of our lives.
But when I read about The Titanic, I think we could push the phrase further. Because sometimes, as you pass another ship in the night, you may hear a cry in the dark.
A person in danger.
A shout for help.
Distress rockets and SOS signals wailing into the night.
A stranger in crisis !
In feeling moments when your ship passes theirs, you get to make the choice – are you gonna be The Californian, the closest ship to Titanic, which saw the distress rockets and saw the lights on horizon and sat and did nothing, or are you the Carapathia, turning on a dime and putting full steam to the engine, racing to help ?
We cannot say for sure what caused Californian to not help Titanic in the night of the crisis. Whether it was apathy or the incompetence of fear, we don’t know. But we know that if a soul on Titanic survived that night, it was because of Carpathia. Because the crew and the passengers of the ship nearly raced 60 miles through the ice fields above their maximum speed in the middle of dead of the night, readying life boats, readying triage to pull them out of the water.
So, yes, we are ships passing by the night, when given the chance to turn away or do good, always err on the side of reckless compassion.
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