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LightHearted Musings - We’re In the Same Boat Now
Posted by Dr. Molly Roberts on January 18th, 2009
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
–Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A long time ago in a land not so far away, a whole village found themselves at the bottom of a very deep well. Now, each of them had their own unique story for how they got down in that well. Some had been pushed by either seen or unseen forces to make this descent. Others had not noticed the well in their path and had simply fallen in. Some had been reckless, testing how close to falling they could get before taking the plunge themselves. The final group were simply pulled down with the crowd.
There were still some people at the top of the well, but not enough to make a concerted rescue effort. The well itself was too deep to climb out of, though there were plenty of individuals who tried with all their might to do so. Panic was setting in, as the well was quickly filling with water. Some were crying. Others were trying to climb the walls of the well without success, often falling on top of their fellow villagers when they lost their grip.
It was at the moment of greatest despair that one little girl kneeled down quietly. With her back bowed over as it was, the others thought she was either praying or crying. Some thought that she might be trying to hasten her own end, as the water was all the way up to her chin in this position.
With a calm, quiet voice that nevertheless retained the sweet tenor of her youth, she said to the person next to her, “Use my back as your footstool and reach up.” The others stopped and stared - maybe there was another way out of this mess.
This one little girl was not big enough to raise that person to their salvation, but she was big enough to start something. With her as their inspiration, the villagers worked together to create a human ladder, with one person on top of another and continuing upward. Each person gravitated to their natural position in the chain. Those with the strongest backs formed the foundation, those who were the most agile went toward the top, and everyone else found their place in between, until finally they reached their goal. Then the human ladder became a human rope so that those who had made it out could pull up the rest of their fellow villagers.
By offering herself in service, this little girl had shown the way. By heeding that call both to service and to action, by coming together as a community of individuals dedicated to a common goal, the villagers had found all that they needed to restore both their hope and their salvation.
Today, we as a world village are down in that well, with the water quickly rising. We are being called both to service and to action, and it is now our time to come together as a community of individuals dedicated to a common goal. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, we are all most definitely in the same boat now, and we each have a role we can play in our mutual survival. My father called this being “smart selfish, ” as our willingness to help each other is truly the only way we are each going to get ourselves out of this well. Find your place of service and then, most importantly, step up and take part in your own rescue.
Dr. Molly
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