Ever see the 1995 film Crimson Tide with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington? It's been several years since I've seen it myself, but there was one scene in there that always stuck with me. The Chief of the boat has a heart attack down in the galley, or is injured, or something... Anyway, while the men are scrambling to go to his aid, the Captain (Gene Hackman) decides to run a boat drill. So he gets on the intercom in the middle of the crisis and announces that it's an all hands on deck drill and the men have to scramble to their battle stations. It causes quite an intense few minutes in the sub, and I think the Chief even dies during the chaos.
Later, Denzel Washington goes to Gene Hackman to confront him. He is mad that the captain made the decision to call for a drill during the chief's heart attack. Hackman defends his decision saying that it is during tough times that men are truly tested, and that he took advantage of the Chief's heart attack to see how the men would handle themselves under the pressure.
Now, regardless of what you may think of that rationale, it does illustrate a good point. We never know when emergencies are going to arise in our lives. If we did, we would prepare for them and handle them with an organised calm. But sometimes when bad things happen, and then another and another I get to thinking, "Man, I could handle any one of these things, but not all these at once!"
That's not how it works! LOL That's why they're called emergencies. I had a scenario tonight creep up on me that made me nervous, apprehensive, and uncomfortable. So I called a good friend to talk about it (my sponsor, for you 12 steppers out there), only to discover that he is in the hospital for emergency surgery tomorrow! Then I tried to call another friend (a former sponsor up in Utah), and could not get through... So I kinda feel like too much is flying at me at once.
I know I'll get through all this, and be stronger for it in the end. But I just had to laugh when I thought back to that scene from Crimson Tide. Tonight I got hit with a couple of things all at once, and I wish I could take them one at a time- but I'll get through them.
2 comments:
Yeah, life seems to be all or nothing. I also got thrown several problems at once at the end of last year. I'm still slowly cleaning up the mess, but I'm getting there.
One of my friends says that life is like a video game. You can't go to the next level until you figure this one out. Problems are challenges rather than an obstacles. Doesn't that make it sound more fun?
I always play video games on the "easy" setting.
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