A thought on the horrifying airplane accident over France:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Last edited Thu Mar 26, 2015, 01:57 PM - Edit history (1)

The Los Angeles Times has a columnist who often has spoken about events that leave most of us speechless. His name is Steve Lopez and he used to write a column called Points West. Back in 2004-05, an awful mudslide buried a town, killing many residents. The title was "Ordinary Lives Derailed by Fate" and it was published on January 28, 2005.

Steve had this to say about that, and I thought it was really applicable to yesterday's events:

"There is no rhyme or reason. There is only the chilling reminder that we live precariously and die randomly, and that there is honor in facing each day with purpose and grace."

[cilla4progress]

1. I love this. Thank you.

I am posting it on my wall (that would be real, bricks and mortar, well, actually, sheetrock, wall, not virtual...) here at home.

And by the way, thereby comes religion. This randomness and the chillingness of it, explains a lot (to me anyway), about the genesis of the need for explanation and order: a controlling benevolent force, and a cloudless shimmering outpost to which those lost are shepherded, to reside forever in peace, comfort, and love.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Thank you, my dear cilla4progress!

Steve Lopez and I are honored by your post.

And I agree about the connection to religion. We cannot stand the uncertainty and randomness of life, and since we can't impose order on horror, we turn to religion for comfort and control, even though those are illusions.

[cilla4progress]

10. I agree.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's only when religion becomes exclusive and hypocritical, that I, personally, become very cynical.

That quote is so meaningful to me as an Agnostic (/pagan/Unitarian/atheist), in that the first sentence is consistent with my "religious" belief (my actual "religion" is: we are all connected). Maybe religion isn't the right word, or framing. ...

But the 2nd sentence: "facing each day with purpose and grace". I think I have the purpose part worked out; it's the grace I need to work on.

As I develop a lump in my throat re-reading his amazing words, I realize that they may help me through what is left of my time here in this life. I'm not sick or dying or anything ... just turning 60 this weekend! Feeling very philosophical, very fortunate, and very blessed.

Thank you!

[calimary]

22. Hey cilla4progress! Congrats on becoming "Miss 60"!

I'll be 62 this year. So far I'm finding it quite survivable! And I know how you feel - "very philosophical, very fortunate, and very blessed." And you never know when your number's up. It's just one of those things.



SHIT! I had a tear in my eye (been there all morning), and I just happened to glance up at the body of your post, and saw the "Maybe religion isn't the right word, or framing..." and for a moment I thought "framing" was "farting."

fuuuuuuck...

[cilla4progress]

24. Love it!

Thank you.

And you are one of my blessings...!!

[StarzGuy]

31. Maybe, but I don't need an invisble cloud being...

...to know that we live in an awesome universe and that we are only stewards of our home, planet Earth.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. You're quite right, of course.

I didn't actually mean all of us need such a concept.

Welcome to DU!

[lovemydog]

3. Reminds me of the movie 21 Grams.

A random car accident, changing lives forever. 21 Grams is supposed to refer to the weight of one's soul when it leaves the body. It's more metaphorical than some scientific claim, lol. Anyway, a great movie if you're in the mood for that type of thing, if you haven't seen it already.

[closeupready]

4. I really like that. Kind of how I approach life.

Having lived through a lot of scary stuff, I now find in my middle-aged mind that I'm not as scared of dying as I was when I was younger, since so many of my friends and former classmates have passed.

Life. Nobody's getting out of it alive!

[KamaAina]

5. There was a plane crash in Switzerland?!

The one you're thinking of was in France.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Oops, I will fix........thanks!

[mnhtnbb]

7. Except this was not fate or Mother Nature. This was more like Sandy Hook x 7.

It was not an accident.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. You're right; it wasn't an accident. It was done on purpose.

So how should I have titled my post? About the murders over France? I'm kidding, of course.

We're all talking about the accident, even though we now know it wasn't.

[uppityperson]

29. "Tragedy" perhaps?

[Fla Dem]

16. Except it was fate for the 105 people killed.

If they hadn't gone on that vacation, gone on that business trip, if they hadn't been on time, if they had booked a different fight, if the pilot hadn't stepped out of the cockpit. All of that conspired to have them on that flight. When, for whatever trigger of fate caused the co-pilot to decide to murder 105 people, and so he did.

FATE
noun
1. something that unavoidably befalls a person; fortune; lot:
It is always his fate to be left behind.

2. the universal principle or ultimate agency by which the order of things is presumably prescribed; the decreed cause of events; time:
Fate decreed that they would never meet again.

3. that which is inevitably predetermined; destiny:
Death is our ineluctable fate.

4. a prophetic declaration of what must be:
The oracle pronounced their fate.

5. death, destruction, or ruin.

6. the Fates, Classical Mythology. the three goddesses of destiny, known to the Greeks as the Moerae and to the Romans as the Parcae.

[cilla4progress]

23. Makes me think of a wonderful thought articulated by Christopher Reeves,

a great liberal, in his book, "Still Me," after his horse riding accident that eventually took his life.

He recounts the story of one of his medical aids trying to comfort him by saying that "everything happens for a reason." I hear this so often and, like Christopher Reeves, either don't understand it - or just consider it hooey!

Anyway, Reeves' reply, although full of grace, was that, while he didn't necessarily believe it HAPPENED for a reason, he was going to make sense out of it; use it, or understand it, in whatever way was helpful or positive.

So, he took that randomness, and made order out of it by applying his own positive, affirmative thought and action, rather than just giving in to something outside his control, or explaining it away. Although, there is something to be said for that - realizing we truly aren't in control; accepting "the great mystery." I guess the message is, to the extent we DO have control, it's best to recognize it, and do something positive with it: grace.

[liberalhistorian]

35. I am a seminary student at a

progressive, liberal seminary. One of the first things we're taught in any pastoral care class is to never, never, EVER, under any circumstances whatsoever, say nonsense like "it happened for a reason", or " they're in a better place now" or any of that other trite bullshit. ESPECIALLY if we were serving as chaplains. What people essentially want is someone to be with, listen to, and cry with them. And when we're asked why it happened, to say we don't know. Because we DON'T know. No one does.

[raccoon]

36. I like what your seminary teaches! nt

[liberalhistorian]

40. So do I!

It's worlds better than the fundie crap the seminary in my own state teaches.

[cilla4progress]

38. Wonderful!

[renate]

52. I'd never heard that story about him

That's really wonderful. Thank you for sharing it here!

[mainstreetonce]

17. It made me think of Columbine

The suicidal killers wanted their names to be historic for taking the most lives with them.

[mnhtnbb]

9. We now know it wasn't an accident. Tragedy, yes.

And I think that fits in with the meme of never knowing when your number is up,
and being in a situation with circumstances beyond your control.

[cilla4progress]

11. I'm finding this thread very meaningful.

Thank you for all the thoughtful posts.

I can't recall if I've seen 21 grams - is Will Smith in it? Anyway, adding it to my Netflix now.

Good day, everyone!

[elias49]

12. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315733/

Excellent movie.

[Hekate]

13. Thanks for remembering this and passing it along just now.

Steve Lopez is one of their best writers, btw.

[deutsey]

14. And a reminder to treat each other more kindly, more often n/t

[heaven05]

15. love it

thanks...for truth

[azmom]

18. Humans are capable of beautiful dreams and horrible nightmares

You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”
― Carl Sagan, Contact

[cilla4progress]

20. Beautiful.

Another great film, and book.

[calimary]

19. Thank you my dear Peggy.

I feel like crying. And I have NO connection to this tragedy at all. Didn't know anybody on there. My daughter and her fiance are over there now, on kind of a pre-honeymoon, but they left Barcelona for parts west of there. That's as close as I got, Thank You, GOD.

"There is no rhyme or reason. There is only the chilling reminder that we live precariously and die randomly, and that there is honor in facing each day with purpose and grace." - Steve Lopez

A keeper. I'm gonna add it to my quotes collection.



You make me think of FLyellowdog and some thoughts we shared in late February before we lost her. In the end, all we have is the Now, and Each Other.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. Thank you, my dear calimary...

I like your line too:

In the end, all we have is the Now, and Each Other.

[Android3.14]

25. Why thank you, Ms. Peggy

I found that affirming.

[Demeter]

26. It was murder-suicide

And like most most of these, the murders were senseless egotism by the suicide. He was too big a coward to just quietly put himself out of our misery...he wanted company. There's your reason, in cold blood.

[MADem]

27. Yeah--it's still tough when you have to put a loved one on a plane with the rain pissing down a

day after something like that, though.

Fingers crossed, hope for the best, I guess. What else can one do?

[panader0]

28. Your post and the comments here remind me of this book I read many years ago---

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge.[1] A friar who has witnessed the tragic accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.[2]

[cilla4progress]

39. Sounds like a fabulous story.

Is there resolution at the end? Don't tell what it was, if so...I'm putting it on my reading list.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

51. I read the last paragraph of The Bridge of San Luis Rey at funerals.

It is a marvelous short novel. I first read it in high school because my dad recommended it to me. He was pretty cool about literature and steered me towards some authors I would have not otherwise discovered. John Donne, of the great book titles like For Whom the Bell Tolls, I'm looking at you here.

Especially for those of us who are not religious:

“‘But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.’”

From the Thornton Wilder Society:
http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey/

[Zorra]

30. Enjoy the day...it's all we have. nt

[sabrina 1]

32. He sounds like a real writer. That is beautifully stated, CaliforniaPeggy

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. And if you die on a plane, you won't be alone....

CNN will be "watching closely".

[cwydro]

37. K and R

[PCIntern]

41. I knew Steve Lopez in the olden days when

he used to write for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He's a brilliant writer...and was one of the first to flee the now-dying paper here.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

42. He is nothing short of great. I treasure him.

Lucky you, knowing him in person.

[Delphinus]

43. Thank you.

I am so glad I read this. It is a balm to my soul.

[raven mad]

44. CaliforniaPeggy, as usual, you give solace to the heartbroken.

Thank you. Bookmarked.

[Cha]

45. "There is no rhyme or reason. There is only the chilling reminder that we live precariously and die

randomly, and that there is honor in facing each day with purpose and grace."

Mahalo, Peggy

[Skittles]

46. no one is guaranteed another day

make the most of it

[CaliforniaPeggy]

47. Yes INDEED, my dear Skittles.

Our mutual friend WCGreen always tells me to live in the moment. And he is so right.

[Skittles]

49. hey I sent him a Mark Twain card

filled with quotes!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

50. Oh, very cool!

I bet he enjoyed that a lot!

If I get the opportunity to actually talk to him, I'll ask him.

[spanone]

48. thank you CaliforniaPeggy!

k&r....

[DFW]

53. I'm taking German Wings from Düsseldorf to Barcelona on Monday

I'm somewhat reassured by the likelihood that it won't happen again (not this soon, anyway).

[CaliforniaPeggy]

54. It IS highly unlikely, of course!

Have a good trip, my dear DFW...

[DFW]

56. Moltes gracies, cara Peggy!

(As the locals would say)

[rurallib]

55. I think every day how much we depend on others to be honest and diligent

just to get us through the day.
We expect our food not to be poisoned; we expect the pharmacist not to give us the wrong meds; we expect the water we drink to not be contaminated; we expect the surgeon to not cut out a vital organ by mistake; we expect our banks and financial institutions not to run off with our money. The list goes on forever.

As a society we have tried to put laws and rules and procedures on place so that we can function with some level that the systems will work. But as I have always said, if someone doesn't want it to work no laws will stop them from the evil they do.

We have so many examples of that right now - police out of control, lawmakers ruining lives by taking away education and food from the poor, the wealthy living in a different world than the rest of us.

Much of our society is built on trust that our fellow man will do what is expected. It seems that this is breaking down as lust for riches takes over.