People in the Ocean

My friend Lemuel told me about a situation at sea having to do with two cruise ships and the passengers on those two ships.

The ships were sailing close to each other, with good visual contact, when an explosion occurred on one of the vessels – it tore the hull apart and immediately the ship began to sink – it was chaos; alarms going off, mothers and fathers clutching children, confused elderly, loud speakers blaring to abandon ship, the crew shouting instructions, people falling into the water, attempts to lower life boats, loved ones holding tight to each other.

Immediately arguments broke out on the other ship about whether to rescue the passengers and crew of the sinking ship.

Should they lower the life boats? Should they rescue only those who could swim to the ship and pull themselves up onto the deck? Should they only rescue those who could get into a life boat? Should they only rescue those who could provide a driver’s license or a passport? On and on the arguments went.

Finally someone said, “Look, you are not supposed to be on this ship unless you are a crew member employed by the owner of the ship, or you are a passenger who has paid a fare. That’s the way we left port and that’s the way we should enter port. No one has any business on this ship who hasn’t paid for a ticket. Now if some of those people in the ocean can pay for a ticket and we won’t be inconvenienced by their presence, then I guess we can let them on board – but they’ve got to pay before they come on board.”

The ship sailed away without rescuing anyone, after all, the people in the ocean were just “those people.”