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Over the past year and a half, our family has had more time on our hands to enjoy some of the things we love. For my younger daughter and I, one of these things is snuggling and watching movies together. I was on a mission this past year to have her see some of the “classic” movies of my time. Movies that I enjoyed as a young girl. Movies that, over time, would come to define my childhood and my era.
Of course, one of the top movies on my list was James Cameron’s “Titanic” staring Kate Winslet and, my childhood crush, Leonardo DiCaprio. My daughter ended up enjoying this movie just as much as I did when I was a young girl. She said she could even see why I had such a crush on “Jack” back then! And, sure enough, the unexpected ending made her cry too. It sure was hard to hold in what was going to happen as I saw her young bright eyes take in their love story & quest to be together.
And then a few months later, as we were heading to the grocery store, my daughter, out of the blue, asked me a very simple question about this movie. It was one simple question that would end up hitting home for me as I looked at my own life.
My daughter asked if there were really any survivors from the Titanic? At first, I didn’t know how to answer her, so I quickly did some research and found a great article by Jackie Loohauis-Bennett from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In this article, she lists 100 facts about the story of the Titanic, and it seems that the unsinkable ship took the lives of 1,517 women, men and, children with leaving only 706 survivors. So there it was, the answer my daughter was looking for.
But that wasn’t the part of the article that really stuck with me. As I continued reading on, I got to Fact #53 that states a nearby vessel was seen off port side of the Titanic. The identity of this vessel still remains unknown, but had it chosen to respond, it could have possibly arrived in time and saved many more of the Titanic passengers that died.
1,517 people died. 1,517. And all because another ship would not steer from their path into the uncertainty of what was happening right next to them. They instead chose to keep on rowing with no regard for those around them.
They.Kept.On.Rowing. And that choice affected 1,517 lives.
This fact really hit me. It hit me hard. It made me think about my life and the things we see happening in our world today. When is the last time we paused in our journey, in our voyage, to see who needed us, and how we could make a difference in someone else’s life?
How many times have you walked by someone in need of food or money and didn’t stop because it was their problem to figure out? How many times has someone in your life asked you for a favor and you felt annoyed or taken advantage of? When is the last time you saw someone struggling to carry groceries to their car and felt you were just too busy to stop and help? When is the last time we thought about some of our lonely elders in our communities who really needed a visit or a card?
We may not be rowing past 1,517 lives drowning right in front of us. But, is there really a difference? We are still choosing to tread on with our life as if none of this other stuff is happening, as if none of this other stuff is important to us because…guess what… we are just too busy too care.
And I am just as guilty of this as the next person. We get so wrapped up in our day-to-day lives that we start to easily take for granted what we have, and how we can use those resources to help others. Resources that can and should be used for not just the good of ourselves, but also for the good of others.
So, how did we get here? I mean, seriously, how did we get here? When did we stop doing the simple, kind things in life to help others? When did we decide to just keep on rowing in our own lives with no regard for those around us?
Wherever you are at in life, right now, I want us all to stop for just a minute. Let’s stop rowing for just a moment and reflect upon our day to day lives. How can we start to make a difference in someone else’s life? How we can learn to stop being so busy on our own path and start remembering those around us?
This is going to be a tough one, so let’s try to start with this: As we set about our voyage this week, I want to encourage all of us to pause throughout the day and just look around. What do you see? Are their people in your life, right at this moment, that could use your help? Do you see someone struggling that could use your hand to lift them up out of the water they are currently drowning in? Is there a stranger you come across that you get the strong desire to do something nice for? If so, let’s make this week and every week after different than the ones before it.
Let’s try hard to always remember to not just focus ahead on our own life and voyage, but to finally take some time to stop rowing…to put that paddle down… to see what we can do to help those around us. Because if we all start to do this…to make a small difference in someone’s life every chance we get…maybe we will end up saving some lives that are drowning right in front of us. It’s our choice to make…so let’s make this choice together. Let’s stop rowing… for just a moment…and then let’s see what happens next.
Xoxo
Marsha
*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com. Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!
Resources:
Loohauis-Bennett, Jackie. “100 Unsinkable Facts about the Titanic.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 12/19/2017, https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/2017/12/19/100-unsinkable-facts-titanic/964485001/. Accessed 06/20/2021
Photo Credit: Photo by Sangeet Rao from Pexels