This week the Ole Seagull had the opportunity to go through Branson’s exciting and educational “Titanic-Worlds Largest Museum Attraction.” He also had the opportunity to interview Robert Stack, the author of “The Millvina Dean Story,” the story of the oldest living survivor of the Titanic disaster. As he read the book and toured the museum one thing jumped out at him, “The cumulative beliefs, actions, passion, enthusiasm, hopes, and dreams of today are the foundation of tomorrow, if it comes, and our legacy if it doesn’t.”
At 11:30 p.m. on that fateful April 14, 1912 night, the vast majority of the 2,224 persons aboard the mighty unsinkable Titanic hoped, dreamed and planned for tomorrow. By 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, as the huge leviathan, breached by an iceberg strike, slipped beneath the Atlantic to her watery grave, the hopes, dreams, plans, and tomorrows of 1,513 souls, passengers and crew, went with her and their legacy was sealed.
One can only wonder what they would have done differently a year, month, week, or day before had they known that there would be no tomorrows for them after the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. As the Ole Seagull was thinking about that it hit him, “What if there is no tomorrow for you, what if you have written your last column, what is your legacy?”
Two thoughts came to mind. One was, “It is what it is.” In an Ole Seagull’s opinion at the “end of the day” our legacy is the sum total of how our lives have impacted on the lives of others, either positively or negatively. That is done one day, one person, and one learning experience at a time and “was what it was” for those who perished on the Titanic even as “it is what it is” if the Ole Seagull has written his last column.
Today is the time to make the changes for a better tomorrow because, as the Titanic so dramatically illustrated, tomorrow might not be available. On the other hand, if one is blessed with many more tomorrows think of how much better they could be because of the changes made today.
The other thought that came to mind was, “Thank You Lord.” Actually, it was a constant stream of “Thank You Lords.” From a column perspective, it was Thank You Lord for the opportunity to serve my community as columnist, for letting me serve under a constant stream of editors and publishers who gave me the freedom to publish my thoughts and opinions without external pressure, for the readers who, although certainly not agreeing with everything I wrote, were kind enough to read the column.
From a non-column perspective, an Ole Seagull would say “Thank You Lord” for the family, community and country that He blessed me with, the opportunity to hope and dream and enough tomorrows and a wife that enabled a lot of those dreams to become a reality. But, most of all he would say Thank You Lord because He has never given up on me and, one “today” at a time, even with a lot of steps backward, He has made me a better person for the tomorrows that He has blessed me with.
Obviously, because this column is being written the Ole Seagull’s tomorrows haven’t ended and he hasn’t written his last column, or has he? One of the lessons of the Titanic is that no one is guaranteed tomorrow. If an Ole Seagull knew that there would no more tomorrows for him and had a last few seconds to express his final thoughts, his prayer would be that they would be the same thoughts he thinks almost every night as his head hits the pillow, “Thank You Lord, thank You.”
