It is difficult to watch the unfolding of events in the Gulf of Mexico these days. That oil rig that blew up has created a mess ... a real mess. Oil spilled and continues to flow out into the water. The crude is reaching the coastline, washing up on beaches, damaging the environment, engulfing wildlife that doesn't know to get out of the way or, worse, has nowhere to go. Shrimp fishermen are out of work. The oyster beds are closed. And despite the vast sums that BP America is spending to fix the problem, it only seems to get worse.
What amazes me in all of this is the outcry we hear. The suggestion seems to be that nothing like this should ever happen. Oil rigs shouldn't blow up. Oil pipelines shouldn't leak. If they do, they should be easily fixed. Oil spills shouldn't be so hard to control and clean up. Things like this shouldn't happen!
We work hard for comfort. We invent new levels of comfort. We often believe, in fact, that comfort is our right. So we make new work-saving devices and invent new safety measures and pass new laws to prevent discomfort. We seem to actually believe that we can arrive at Paradise in this world where there are no accidents, no misfortunes, no painful events, where nothing bad happens.
It looks like we've forgotten what it takes to be successful.Vince Lombardi once said, "The price of success is hard work." We know in theory "no pain, no gain" and "you have to break some eggs to make an omelet". Still, it seems as if we have arrived at the place where we want all the comforts without any of the cost. We want advancement without risk. We are very foolish indeed.
The Bible says that all creation is under the curse. Sometimes people think that work was the result of the Fall of Adam, but the truth is that work was always part of the plan. Adam had work to do before he ever fell. No, the price of the Fall was not work, but hard work. God told Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:17-19). Since humans are assigned by God to hard labor and since all creation is cursed, why would we expect Paradise on Earth?
I'm in favor of labor-saving devices. I'm not against safety measures. If we can find newer, safer ways to do things, I'm all for it. But what concerns me is this notion that nothing bad should ever happen, that accidents shouldn't occur, that at some point, if we do all things correctly, we will achieve an environment without problems. We can have our oil without risk. We can drive where we want without accidents. Someone is always to blame and all we have to do is find out who it is and make them pay. There! Fixed that! We even think that we it is our right to never be offended. If someone says something offensive, they ought to pay! No one should ever be offended again! Not gonna happen, folks. Absolute comfort is not the birthright of every human being and will not exist in this life. Making that your goal, your dream, is setting yourself up for failure.
2 comments:
As I was reading this I couldn't help but think of the acceptable level of terrorism that the "offend" police are willing to accept as a price necessary two ensure that certain people cut from a perhaps saner piece of the same cloth won't have to feel uncomfortable. But something like this spill raises the ire and suspicions of all who hate the fact that someone somewhere is making a good living off of a profit-simply because someone somewhere is making a profit-and therefore deserves the worst of punishments and suspicion when a mistake happens. Oh the folly of thinking that if "government" men were working on that platform unmotivated by profit, or fear of loss for that matter, this would have never happened. Great post Stan.
This is what I would have posted had I read it before posting it.
As I was reading this I couldn't help but think of the acceptable level of terrorism that the "anti-offence-police" are willing to accept in order to ensure that certain people, who happen to be cut from a perhaps saner piece of an otherwise radical cloth, won't have to feel uncomfortable. All the while something like this oil spill raises the ire and suspicions of all who hate the fact that someone somewhere is making a good living off of a profit, and so therefore deserve the worst of punishments and suspicions as a result of this mistake. Oh the folly of thinking that if "government" men had been working on that platform, unmotivated by profit or fear of loss, this would not have happened. Great post Stan.
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