We Talk Friday
(WTF)
This is a semi-regular series that I will run on Fridays to hold discussions on a current topic from the week gone. The aim is to keep them light and conversational, though some might be heavier - regardless of the content topic itself though, just have some fun engaging and discussing with whoever happens to put in the effort in the comments section below.
I am guessing that everyone has heard and seen the terrible event in India of another major plane crash, and also what can only be described as the miraculous lone survivor who literally walked away from the crash with minor injuries. After losing power, the plane hit buildings just after takeover and there was an enormous explosion as the jet fuel ignited. And one person walked away.
It just doesn't make sense, does it?
I'm almost expecting it to be some kind of cruel scam.
However, I wonder how the sole survivor goes on after this. His brother was on the plane with him, and around 300 people were killed in total in the plane and on the ground. And while I am sure there will be a lot of shock, will he be thankful he lived in the future, or have survivor guilt? He will likely have to ask himself the question of "Why me?", but can there ever really be a satisfactory answer to explain it?
How do you think you would deal with it?
While I would like to believe I would be okay, I don't. I reckon I would not handle surviving something like this well at all, especially after losing family beside me. I don't know if it would be guilt I would feel, but the senselessness of it would weigh heavy on my mind and the not knowing would be a constant pressure. I think the sheer magnitude of the event and the near improbability of survival nearly unscathed, would eat away at me. Not to mention walking away through what must have been a horrific scene of bodies. And then of course, for the rest of life the focus would be on the surviving, which relegates the hundreds of those who died into the background.
But, it is impossible to tell how I would feel and react, because it is impossible for me to put myself into the shoes of that guy, or his future. The life-changing scale of the crash and its aftermath is unimaginable for me, as I have never been in anything even remotely that impactful. Yet, it is our human nature to try and make sense of these events by comparing it to what we have experienced - like a car crash, the time the plane had to turnback because of a broken windscreen from a bird strike, or the several near-death experiences I have had throughout my life.
Do they give me adequate experience to imagine life after surviving a plane crash?
I don't think so.
Perhaps the experience is so extreme that the mind can't process much of it at all, and minimises it so that life can "go on" somehow. Perhaps the brain just blacks parts of the response out to protect itself from such an incredible unknown.
I don't know if he is lucky, or cursed.
Time will tell how he handles it and hopefully he is able to somehow consolidate the experience and find a way to live a good life after. Hopefully it empowers him to do something great, and something helpful for the world with what must be seen as a second chance, no matter what his life was prior.
If you had a second chance, what would you do?
Tomorrow is a new day.
Taraz
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