On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks
often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station.
The building was just a hut and had only one boat, but the few
devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea. With no
thought for themselves, they went out every day and night,
tirelessly searching for shipwreck victims. Many lives were
saved by this wonderful little life-saving station, and so it
became famous.
Some of those who were saved and various others in the
surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station
and give their time, money, and effort for the support of the
work. New lifeboats were bought and new life-saving crews were
trained. The little life-saving station grew. Some of the
members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the
building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt a little
more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of
those who were saved from drowning. So they replaced the
emergency cots and the emergency beds and put in better
furniture. Now the life-saving station became a popular
gathering place for its members, and they decorated it
beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as
a sort of social club.
Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving
missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do the work. The
life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decoration and
there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club met.
About this time, a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the
hired crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people.
They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin, and
some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was considerably
messed up, so the property committee immediately had a shower
house built outside the club where the victims of the shipwreck
could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership.
Most of the members wanted to stop the life-saving activity
because it was unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social
life of the club. Some members insisted on life-saving
operations as the primary purpose and pointed out that they were
still called a life-saving station. But they were voted down
and told if they wanted to save the lives of shipwreck victims
in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station
down the coast, which they did.
And as the years went by, the new station experienced the same
changes that occurred in the old and it evolved into a club and
yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued
to repeat itself. And if you visit the coast today you find a
number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are
frequent in those waters, and most of the people drown
Anonymous -
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