Friday, February 23, 2007

Lent: Day 3

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Just heard a large helicopter go overhead. (11-15pm on Friday). It would be involved in the rescue operation around the train derailment near Kendal. They are bringing casualites to Lancaster and even Preston.

Whenever I hear of such an event, it really brings home the fact that we make so many fragile assumptions about what is certain and sure. Technology promises so much - communication, travel, cures, ease of life, yet in the middle of it all, things like this happen. People are waiting in Glasgow, who thought they might go for a drink this evening with people who are now in a field in Cumbria, or even a local hospital.

Obviously the first concern is that everyone is safe - either sheltered or receiving the treatment they need. But this event also points out that maybe we assume too much about what human achievement can do. Lent is about pointing to our dependance on something (more precisely someone) beyond us, and not on ourselves, and this is a sad reminder that we work on assumptions which are often opposite to that.

This accident is a tragedy, and it shouldn't have happened, and let's pray that everyone will ultimately be OK. It's a remote part of the world, so those people involved in the rescue are real heroes.

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