Last night I saw a documentary on the raising of the half-sunken ship Costa Concordia from its watery grave near the Giglio Porto at Tuscan Island off the shores of Italy in 2014. It was an astounding film and I highly recommend it.*
Astounding for the very reasons that Aquinas spoke of in yesterday’s DM: The human capacity with mind, imagination, hands, skill, engineering prowess and motivation to do amazing things. The process took over two years and cost over 1.2 billion dollars. But it was necessary because the large ship—three football fields long and thirteen decks tall—was lying on its side held up by two granite rocks and if it slipped off those rocks it would sink to the bottom of the deep sea and endanger all the coral and clear waters and living beings in that area of the Mediterranean.
The movie for me was a story of humanity’s capacity to solve problems, to get necessary but difficult things done. And to work together to save Mother Earth and her creatures, to care for the waters and living things habitating them—and to care for humans, too, insofar as future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty of that pristine place.
But the engineers and courageous workers (500 had to go into the sea in dangerous circumstances to do much of the work—one lost his life) had to apply all their skills and hearts to do this job and do it together.
What an archetype of our potential as a species! Our potential to care for the planet. Can we translate that on a larger scale to healing the planet?
Such a healing must include healing ourselves, being willing to sacrifice, to believe in something greater than our own personal agendas and tribal ideologies. To work for a common good. Community: Sharing a common task.
*On PBS, Nova: Sunken Ship Rescue
See yesterday’s DM on “Aquinas on Consciousness, Cosmos, Creativity & Enlarging Our Souls.”
See also Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 21-23.
And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 138, 142.
Banner image: The Costa Concordia, sinking. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What lessons do you draw from this story of amazing human accomplishment? How do you see applying it to the greater problems of human and planetary survival today?
Recommended Reading
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
4 thoughts on “From Aquinas to Sunken Ship Rescue: The Amazing Ingenuity of Humanity”
I, like many of us, bask in the creature comforts that advancements have given to us in this age. My recliner chair; a coffee machine makes me any coffee in the world; an appliance that can stream all created and recorded music into my home; a smart phone that allows me to talk and view most people in the world. Other than camping while growing up and surviving by catching fish and picking berries to eat, I cannot really conceive of the hardship people endured, one, two or many more centuries ago. Like those of centuries past, it is love and faith that gets me through the day. For that I am most grateful.
Waking up each day is a gift. Success is not measured by accomplishment but rather the depth of involvement in what we choose to do. Involvement is a choice and it, or lack thereof, is the driver of accomplishment. Results are what they are and will be. Some things we are not satisfied with and that brings us into a hope and faith in something we can create which invites us into a deeper involvement. Accomplishment then requires our deepest involvement. It is what we ‘involve ourselves in’ every day that determines our accomplishment. And our accomplishment need not be success as measured by ‘the world’, as the world measures. Accomplishment is not always seen as a visual manifestation, but it lays a strong foundation for living life when faith, hope and love appear in short supply. Be involved, get involved. Daily. All else will follow from that. — BB.
What I find thought provoking is that the majority of the time, it takes some kind of tragedy or crisis on a grand scale, for humanity in general to collectively come together in a creatively collaborative and imaginative compassionate and merciful way. I find myself questioning why is it, that suffering and pain motivates humanity more so to do this, than anything else; in order for this oneheartedness, onemindedness, and onespiritedness to unfold, evolve and emerge from within.
Through this process of ponderance upon these questions, I realized that when humanity allows itself to really FEEL first and foremost… rather than intellectualize a tragic event or a crisis circumstance; this response tends to unify humanity in a bond of solidarity with; which begins to nurture, root and weave each one together in love, compassion and mercy. It’s as if the YIN of the receptive feeling heart must arise to the surface first, before the YANG of the active intellect can respond in a more balanced, supportive and collaborative manner.
Without honoring and respecting both the feminine receptivity of deeply feeling and the masculine activity of conceptually thinking through; humanity ends up reacting divisively to pain and suffering, rather than responding unified to this pain and suffering from love and compassion.
Synchronistically, yesterday I was watching two of Michael Dowd’s most recent (May 3, 2023) video presentations on his website (beyonddoom.com) titled “The Big Picture: Beyond Hope and Fear”. After I watched today’s DM enclosed video, “100+ Ways to Heal the Planet” from YouTube, I was led to Jim Bendell’s YouTube subscription channel where he was interviewing
Michael Dowd at the end of 2022 titled: “Religious Roots of Collapse & Ecocide.” In case you’re not aware of Michael Dowd, he has a YouTube subscription channel called “The Great Story,” and his website is also very informative. I especially recommend the 87 “Conversations” from his website where he interviews prominent societal thinkers/activists to share their perspectives: “Post-doom/Post-gloom Conversations with Michael Dowd: A foreboding sense of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom,” is now widespread. Acknowledging our predicament and working through the stages of grief takes us only to the midpoint: acceptance. What lies beyond? Michael Dowd invites 87 guests to share their feelings and perspectives.” He especially recommends his last Conversation with
Meg Whitley.
After I watched today’s DM video, I was led to Jim Bendell’s YouTube subscription channel where he was interviewing Michael Dowd titled: “Religious Roots of Collapse & Ecocide.” In case you’re not aware of Michael Dowd, he has a YouTube subscription channel called “The Great Story,” and his website (post doom.com) is also very informative. I especially recommend the 87 “Conversations” from his website where he interviews prominent societal thinkers/activists to share their perspectives: “Post-doom/Post-gloom Conversations with Michael Dowd: A foreboding sense of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom,” is now widespread. Acknowledging our predicament and working through the stages of grief takes us only to the midpoint: acceptance. What lies beyond?” (Meg Whitley is especially recommended.)