The Folly and Tragedy of the Titan

Two things can be true at the same time.

It seems foolhardy for the five people to go two miles down into the soundless, lightless depths of the sea to look at the remains of a ship inventoried, studied, and chronicled to death. Especially true if their vessel is patched together, as one observer put it, using off the shelf resources to cut costs. That piece of information along with the commentators sprouting up to talk about how the Titan, the submersible everyone was looking for until this afternoon, was never properly tested before starting its career as the ultimate tourist ride made me amp up my criticism of the whole venture.

I am both thrifty and loathe to inconvenience others. So, the sight of several countries bringing enormous resources and technology I never knew existed – did you know the U.S. has a crane that can lift an airplane out of the ocean? – to search for a tiny vessel with five people aboard (never mind that hundreds of migrants died last week off the coast of Greece) seemed outrageous to me.

But then hearing about the submersible’s debris being discovered and the assumption that the vessel had somehow imploded, instantly killing everyone on board, changed my tune. The trip was folly and tragic at the same time. The people on the Titan were rich, but also experienced and curious and willing to take a ridiculous risk. And right away I thought – foolhardy people have a place in the world. Like the wing walkers of the twenties and trapeze artists and the crazy folks who walk across a rope strung between two fifty-story buildings.

Maybe the function of foolhardy people is to remind us that not everything in life has to be safe. That there is exhilaration and inspiration in risk and that we need to feel risk, experience risk to feel alive and brave. Or maybe it’s to remind us that some lives are seen as more important than others – that the mothers and children trapped below deck in the migrant ship that sank off the coast of Greece aren’t as newsworthy, their suffering not as gripping as five men in a submersible touring around the remains of a hundred-year-old shipwreck.

Two things can be true at the same time. I know that much.

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Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash