A meme about the Titanic came across my Facebook feed this weekend.
For background, as Titanic announced her situation to the world, Californian was about 20 miles from Titanic, stopped for the night because of the ice. She was, by most accounts, much closer to the stricken ship than Carpathia, and could have reached Titanic sooner. Between the two ships, it’s believed that many of the 1,500 people lost could have been rescued. Indeed, when Titanic‘s Captain Edward Smith ordered lifeboats launched, he thought the Californian was close enough that the lifeboats would be able to make multiple trips to ferry passengers.

Californian’s Captain Stanley Lord, through what can only be called a comedy of errors, waited until 0530 to get underway toward Titanic’s last position.
She’d sunk three hours prior.
Lord and Californian arrived three hours later at 0830, finding Carpathia surrounded by bodies, debris, and empty lifeboats.
When Carpathia found out what had happened, Captain Arthur Rostron set a course for Titanic even before he’d finished dressing. Rostron ordered the ship’s heating and hot water cut off in order to make as much steam as possible available for the engines, and had extra lookouts on watch to spot icebergs. He ordered three doctors to stand by to treat survivors. The passengers stood by to offer any assistance they could, including dry clothing.

Carpathia was farther away, but Rostron got his ship there first and saved over 700 people.
When I shared the meme, I wrote, “In a world of Californians, be a Carpathia.” It occurred to me a bit later that I might clarify that statement.
I know that not everyone has the spoons to be a Carpathia. It can take a lot of energy to do as much as Carpathia and her crew did.
But we can all do good.
You don’t have to do all the good for everyone.
But you should do all the good that you can.
We can all show reckless compassion. I daresay Christians are commanded to do so. That so many seem to refuse that command drives people from the church in droves.
Trust me on that.
Reading
How do you like to read books?
Is it different between fiction and non-fiction?
Most of my book sales have been digital, which shouldn’t surprise anyone these days.
For the last several years or more, I’ve been very happy reading fiction electronically. I’ve got a variety of platforms, from a Kindle to my phone to a Samsung tablet. I got into this phase where I was devouring novels electronically but didn’t really want to read them on paper. It’s easy to finish a book then grab another from Hoopla or whatever electronic platform your library uses.
Non-fiction, like reference books, though? Had to be on paper. I couldn’t figure that out. I thought it might be about making notes or something, but I didn’t do that for any of the non-fiction books I have, whether paper or digital.
At any rate, as I mentioned last week, Editor Friend sent me home with a couple of hardback books to read. I’m just over halfway through To The Last Man after about a week, and I’m discovering that I like reading fiction on paper. It slows me down a little, I think. Gives me more time to digest things. It’s easier to get to the end of a chapter and pause there for the night or afternoon or whatever. I’d have finished this book by now if I were reading a digital version, I think, but I like that it’s taking me a little longer.
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