What struck me as more meaningful than the love story in the movie, "Titanic", is how various characters reacted in the face of impending death:
1. The ship designer seemed repentant, he was solemn and regretful, reflecting upon his mistake as he let the others rush for the lifeboats.
2. The captain seemed attached, disillusioned by his loss of reputation and the possibility of a happy glorious retirement-as he held on to the helms, not escaping, awaiting death. Too much pride?
3. The bad guy was unscrupulous, trying to bribe and cheat his way to escape death.
4. An officer could not stand the pressure of maintaining order. He was forced to shoot one of the passengers who did not queue for the life boats. Regretful and helpless, he shot himself!
5. There are those who simply jumped into the sea to swim after the lifeboats already out at sea.
6. There are those praying feverishly for help.
7. The typical person fights others to get himself into a lifeboat.
8. There are those (like Jack and Rose) unwilling to let go of each other.
9. And of course, there are the calm musicians who historically died at their posts playing music to calm the panicking crowd.
So the question is-if you were on the Titanic that night, how do you think you would have reacted? Do you think that's appropriate? What is appropriate?
The Titanic was a real major disaster-It was the only ship proudly proclaimed in the history of mankind to be unsinkable-yet it sank on its maiden voyage. How does this relate to us? Many of us feel that we are Titanics-we feel immortal at times. We feel undefeatable. There are few illusions that great. Impermanence is not to be talked about, but felt in the bones. The day we are born, we are all sinking Titanics-we start advancing towards death. The tricky part is we do not know how much of our ship of life is still above the water. Have you planned your escape? How are you going to escape? There is an ancient Indian saying:
"The most amazing thing in the world is that we all live as if we will still be alive tomorrow."
On one certain tomorrow, we will not be alive and the scary thing is that this "tomorrow" might just be tomorrow! May we learn to treasure our lives and realize the importance of transcending life and death-today. Yes, realize today! Because tomorrow might never come.
Yes, yes-you'd heard the message above a thousand times. So will this be one more such message? You decide.
You can start taking it seriously now, or tomorrow!
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