I remember many years ago, singing a song at school about the Titanic disaster. It was as I recall, way beyond the understanding and empathy of a mob of kids from the seventies, probably because of the almost whimsical way our music teacher always played it on the piano . . . like some pub room sea shanty, best suited to be sung with a belly full of rum, or Tetley's Yorkshire Bitter. Whatever the reason, we let the event go bang over our heads, through our ears and out of our minds.
A complete heart bypass.
But, now we have reached 100 years since that great ship went down and the years since the school shanty's have rolled along to remind us all of our frail mortality, it has hit me with a greater force than ever before. Maybe for me the writer's mind has kicked in a little here, but I think it's more down to the gauntlet challenge the numerous TV documentaries have laid down; just to consider what we might have done if facing an almost certain death in those icy waters. And I have been staggered afresh by just how much serendipity might have played its part in the disaster, almost - like it was meant to happen. Now, I know such a notion is surely ridiculous to most people. These kind of unforseen disasters have happened before. You can look back at any tragic event, take it apart, and find therein a web like tapestry of occurrences beforehand that finally led to the terrible climax.
The aforementioned song goes on further about the Lord's Almighty Hand knowing that 'ship would never land'. Now He might well have known it was never going to reach it's destination, but I don't believe for one minute divine interference caused the tragedy. It was, as is usually the case, a succession of 'unfortunate events' that placed the 'unsinkable' ship in the wrong place at the wrong time, to meet up with an iceberg she should have been nowhere near in the first place. Throw in the vain eagerness to have her reach New York in record time, the calmness of the water that night, the cable messages warning of ice being missed - and you have a neat recipe for disaster, a perfect killer combination.
It's almost as if fate planned the disaster.
The unsinkable Titanic did just that. She sank - with a loss of life to match the ill provision of the ship's owners. Titanic carried the amount of lifeboats the wise thinkers deemed necessary, nowhere near as many as she needed. There were 20 on her flanks, with room for about 1800 people. She carried well over 2000 souls on board. In fact she could have easily carried at least 30 boats, but it was thought unnecessary and not aesthetically pleasing to do so. From all I have read and seen there appears to be a certain arrogance on the part of those who conceived the ship, to the point where they almost defied nature to do her worst. In hindsight it seems that's exactly what she did. Her very worst. She destroyed Titanic with the quiet precision of a Ripper's cut.
The damage she sustained was just in the right position to kill her; a flank gash of around 300 feet long, well below the waterline. It was an incision the designers had made little provision for, because they simply thought something like this would never happen. The thing I have always found the most disturbing about this tragedy is seeing a CGI Titanic in every TV and movie adaptation, sitting there, moveless and crippled, like a floundering whale in a sea of black glass. It was a mocking ocean that night, that saw no need now to kick up a storm to do it's damage. It is an image for me of how man's greatest fanfare of ideas can be knocked cruelly into silence by the power of other, more mysterious forces.
The aftermath of the Titanic sinking will have been fraught with 'what ifs'. That's the essence of regret. And it's part of being human. Ill considered actions are taken every minute of every day. Some lead to an event as trivial as getting lost in a strange town. Others culminate in death and disaster. It's this freedom we have to invite such disaster or triumph makes us free indeed.
To me the fact remains; if things regarding that fateful voyage had been going 'by the book' Titanic might never have gone down at all. And if we were able to go back in time from this reality and warn Captain Smith of impending catastrophe, would it cause even greater disaster? Is this fine tapestry of existence peppered with occurrences we would rather have not happened, because they were just meant to be? You can either look at the past and see it as an elegant interweave of events that has led to where we are today, or you can call it a big mess. It doesn't seem like endless chaos from here, because the world adapts to it's wounds - and then we carry on to the next crisis. The thing that seems the hardest of all, is not being able to go back and fix things. I have wondered just how many of those survivors, huddled and freezing in the lifeboats, remembered the comfortable experiences of the previous night. Probably more than we think. Yet, that iceberg was waiting, even as they wined and dined; waiting silently and callously to commit mass murder.
We remember tragedy down the years and the loss of life, and so we should. But I sometimes worry about the 'game' the Cosmos likes to endlessly play - to put us in harms way. Or maybe it's all just down to whatever we decide . . .
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
The Passion . . .
Today is Good Friday in the UK, the day in which we remember the public crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. Well, that's part of the day anyway. There are the chocolate eggs of course, and those cute Easter bunnies . . .
For me, I wanted to get some kind of hold on the religious significance, so I decided to take a drive into the local market town and see the street Passion play the local churches had organised. Call me indoctrinated and brainwashed if you like, but my church upbringing sort of demanded I do it, rather than take yet another trip to the supermarket shops, which is what most other days might turn up. It's an interesting thing when you think about it, and I suppose most people wouldn't give a damn, but how could a man who did nothing but good end up being in a terrible situation like that? He was obviously a little too dangerous for his own good, I suspect. The possibility that someone might be conveniently done away with because of mere popularity is right out of conspiracy theory, and outlandish on the one hand, but maybe just a little thought provoking.
The Bible makes it clear that the religious leaders of the day wanted Jesus out of the way very quickly. And it was certainly not because of the trumped up charges of blasphemy they finally snared him with. It was, I think, because he was a formidable man in all departments. The gentle Jesus - meek and mild, was really anything but - as far as they were concerned. He was a real threat to their authority . . . a true man of the people.
On this day of course, it all goes painfully downhill for Jesus - a battered, ripped individual who hardly reflects the future glory he has described to his disciples. I suppose if you want to know the whys and wherefores of why he finished up on that cross at all you would probably be well advised to see a good clergyman or pastor, rather than listen to some simpleton blogger . . . but it occurs to me, many of the people charged with the communication of such a deep word have let years and an ever changing culture blur the vital imagery of a man with a message - and what motivated him in the first place.
The scale of his physical suffering is not that difficult to describe, but maybe more of a problem to fully imagine. The Bible uses very succinct phrases in various passages to illustrate the severity of his injuries, and consequently the barbarism of treatment by his Roman captors. Mel Gibson's - 'The Passion' shows this abuse all graphically, and if Scripture is to be believed very accurately. His film is a horror movie at it's base level, using the Old Testament Biblical template of Jesus being 'marred more than any man' as a primary basis for two hours of relentless and cruelest torture, culminating in a bloody death on a wooden cross.
This morning's presentation was certainly not as graphic as Gibson's but truly a noble one, as the image above will hopefully show. The area here is usually used as a car park, with all the noise and hustle and bustle that goes with it. But for a brief few minutes it was a silent representation of a time and far away hill called 'The Skull'. There were no idling engines to be heard at all, just the weird sound of a chill wind running a rumble over the few microphones that had been set up across the square as the actor lowered his head and 'died'. Oh yes, there was plenty of respect, for sure, but I knew within the hour the noise of rattling exhausts would be crawling back to reclaim the ground and carry eager shoppers to their weekly 'fix'. People were still wandering and shopping, even as the marching Roman centurions demanded they move aside to let them pass. And why you ask, should we care? None of this 'God' crap is scientifically provable when it comes right down to it. But to me, that's half the beauty, and maybe the fun too. Whether we believe God exists or not, I don't think He's going to tell us anytime soon. The Bible says those who seek Him diligently - will find Him. It kind of throws down a fat gauntlet to the few people with half a mind to even look. And as for the rest of us . . .
I know some people think believing in all this stuff is just a crutch for the weak minded. Well, maybe so. No divine entity has popped up yet to tell me otherwise. I know one thing though, arguing about it can only have me dancing inside the territory of those who have forgotten what the Passion is all about, those who think that they're right and everyone else is wrong. Well friends, we might all be wrong - and all right. One thing will remain constant . . . truth will always be truth, no matter what anyone thinks . . .
For me, I wanted to get some kind of hold on the religious significance, so I decided to take a drive into the local market town and see the street Passion play the local churches had organised. Call me indoctrinated and brainwashed if you like, but my church upbringing sort of demanded I do it, rather than take yet another trip to the supermarket shops, which is what most other days might turn up. It's an interesting thing when you think about it, and I suppose most people wouldn't give a damn, but how could a man who did nothing but good end up being in a terrible situation like that? He was obviously a little too dangerous for his own good, I suspect. The possibility that someone might be conveniently done away with because of mere popularity is right out of conspiracy theory, and outlandish on the one hand, but maybe just a little thought provoking.
The Bible makes it clear that the religious leaders of the day wanted Jesus out of the way very quickly. And it was certainly not because of the trumped up charges of blasphemy they finally snared him with. It was, I think, because he was a formidable man in all departments. The gentle Jesus - meek and mild, was really anything but - as far as they were concerned. He was a real threat to their authority . . . a true man of the people.
The scale of his physical suffering is not that difficult to describe, but maybe more of a problem to fully imagine. The Bible uses very succinct phrases in various passages to illustrate the severity of his injuries, and consequently the barbarism of treatment by his Roman captors. Mel Gibson's - 'The Passion' shows this abuse all graphically, and if Scripture is to be believed very accurately. His film is a horror movie at it's base level, using the Old Testament Biblical template of Jesus being 'marred more than any man' as a primary basis for two hours of relentless and cruelest torture, culminating in a bloody death on a wooden cross.
This morning's presentation was certainly not as graphic as Gibson's but truly a noble one, as the image above will hopefully show. The area here is usually used as a car park, with all the noise and hustle and bustle that goes with it. But for a brief few minutes it was a silent representation of a time and far away hill called 'The Skull'. There were no idling engines to be heard at all, just the weird sound of a chill wind running a rumble over the few microphones that had been set up across the square as the actor lowered his head and 'died'. Oh yes, there was plenty of respect, for sure, but I knew within the hour the noise of rattling exhausts would be crawling back to reclaim the ground and carry eager shoppers to their weekly 'fix'. People were still wandering and shopping, even as the marching Roman centurions demanded they move aside to let them pass. And why you ask, should we care? None of this 'God' crap is scientifically provable when it comes right down to it. But to me, that's half the beauty, and maybe the fun too. Whether we believe God exists or not, I don't think He's going to tell us anytime soon. The Bible says those who seek Him diligently - will find Him. It kind of throws down a fat gauntlet to the few people with half a mind to even look. And as for the rest of us . . .
I know some people think believing in all this stuff is just a crutch for the weak minded. Well, maybe so. No divine entity has popped up yet to tell me otherwise. I know one thing though, arguing about it can only have me dancing inside the territory of those who have forgotten what the Passion is all about, those who think that they're right and everyone else is wrong. Well friends, we might all be wrong - and all right. One thing will remain constant . . . truth will always be truth, no matter what anyone thinks . . .
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