I don't believe in re-incarnation at all whatsoever. However...
hypothetically speaking, this is a fascinating question to ponder. I even read a library book called
Can You Survive the Titanic?: An Interactive Survival Adventure (You Choose: Survival) by Allison Lassieur -- basically one of those choose-your-own-adventure type of reads. There were three different characters to choose from, and each path had a large variety of choices and endings. I went back and re-read all of the different possibilities just out of curiosity. (Therefore, I "survived" and "died" multiple times, re-incarnating only in the literary sense -- which I'm not opposed to, because the real Me is still living my one and only life from now til Eternity). I tried to select the most altruistic ways first, because that is what I hope I would be inclined to act upon in real life scenarios. Surprisingly --and happily-- the altruistic choices often led to life, rather than death. (For example, when the young boy stayed with his father, they both survived after jumping, then made it to a lifeboat together. Also, a medic who went down to check on 3rd class survived, and helped some of the 3rd class folks up, too. Mind you, this was historical fiction, not specific real people that were named on the ship).
Like a choose-your-own-adventure, had God chosen to give me life a hundred years ago at that time and place, it is hard to decide what I would have been up to on board. The 2nd class Library appeals to me, although I think I'd probably just bring books from home and read in my 3rd class room. I prefer to be with the simpler 3rd class, if I could even afford that (their menu sounds more normal to me, and I don't feel the need for all the perks that the wealthier classes had access to there). I think I would have enjoyed the Irish Catholic masses, and liked to pray the rosary with Fr. Thomas Byles, my hero. (See my poem about him-- called
Take a sentimental journey with me). Part of me wishes I would have found a way onto the lifeboat, even from 3rd class... but part of me wishes to be among those praying with Fr. Thomas Byles to the end. I don't like the idea of drowning though, not one bit!
I have a strong will to live. I'm not really a cruise ship kind of gal anyway, not even now; I have never gone on a cruise and am not hoping to. Some of the survivors avoided the ocean after that -- I don't blame them -- I'll avoid it too, on their behalf. I don't like being cold, or that close to big sea creatures. I can see myself being perpetually bundled up in layers of warm clothing though, so at least I would not have found myself lightly clad at that critical time, as others suffered from. I hope I would have generously brought out any extra warm clothing I had to distribute to others out on deck, too. Maybe some friends and I could have raided the bakery and kitchen to supply the lifeboats with enough to warm their bellies as they waited for the
Carpathia. And what about blankets to cover everyones' legs. While we're at it -- along with lifejackets, how about tall rubber rain galoshes for all? I don't know what I really would have done, though, in the midst of chaos and panic, in such a tremendous life-and-death catastrophe.
Or perhaps I could have saved money by becoming a stewardess, and taken care of others. Like Violet Jessop, who survived being shipwrecked on both the Titanic and later the Britannic, then kept on being a stewardess until her retirement. (If I was me -- but back then -- I probably would have quit after the first shipwreck and found another, safer line of work). Wait, or maybe be the library-steward, that'd have been neat. And being a girl, more chance of survival. I feel so sorry for the fellas, though! They have equal dignity to us ladies, and families should get to stay together.
Even guys without families have every right to live, as do ladies without families. Everyone deserves a place on a lifeboat; I'm so glad that has been amended since then. If I was back in time, maybe I could have said something or done something to change their minds and get them to have enough lifeboats already. But then were it not for the Titanic tragedy, would the lifeboats requirement have changed? Or would countless future lives on other ships also still be lost? The best thing would be if everyone made the wisest, smartest choices all the time -- I wish!
Or, if I could have taken the place of one of the Morse code boys, and tried to k.i.t. better with the Californian rather than paying more attention to the passengers' less urgent messages. Then maybe I could have convinced the captain to stop the ship for the night, as the Californian was doing, to avoid the danger of navigating almost blindly through the moonless ice field. The trouble is, I'd want to go back in time with the knowledge I have now, rather than really re-incarnate. I also read a
Magic Tree House book where the two kids go back in time to try and help, and they make it back safe and sound after helping someone from 3rd class. In another book --
The Flashback Four: Mission Titanic-- these kids try to go back in time to take a rare photo of the Titanic sinking, but first they try to warn them that the ship is going to sink! (No one listened to them, and it still ended up sinking.)
It would be very difficult to change past events that involve sooo many different people and various factors. I cannot play God. I can only be myself, and do what I can to try to follow God's Will in the Present Moment. I like to think that God hears my prayers --Now-- for the people back then... because God lives in the Eternal Present Moment and sees and understands All. For example, I like to pray that wealthy people with extra clothes and fur coats maybe would share them -- as if my prayers could "change their mind" -- but even if one person did this, maybe my prayers had some effect on that? It excited me to imagine that. :O I like to imagine that when I pray the Rosary, I can pray "along" with Fr. Thomas Byles and those praying as the musicians played "Nearer my God, to Thee..." I can even pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, now, and hope that it helped their souls, then. (The Chaplet wasn't written until before WW2, so they wouldn't have prayed it, but I can pray it FOR them). I like to pray for the many lost bodies to not have also lost their souls, but made their eternal Peace with God, at the end of the one life they each had.
While I would not say that it was God's intention for the Titanic to sink, I would say that when people made themselves feel mightier than God, it did not help their situation. They trusted in the ship rather than in God. (Well, some did trust in God, very much! I hope I would, too!) Thankfully, God was/is more powerful than all that, and He brought good out of it all: He brought kindness out of people on the
Carpathia who ministered to the needs of the Titanic survivors. He humbled the 1st class survivors (kinda sorta) to see that all the people were "in the same boat" and equal in dignity to them. And future ship safety got improved when people learned from the mistakes of the Titanic. God is good, all the Time!
To be honest, I doubt I would have consented to board the ship if I had known there were not enough lifeboats. (I am a worrywart about a lot of things, and that has likely saved my life in plenty of ways, whether or not I'm aware of it.) I read a true story about a sailor who decided NOT to sign up for duty aboard the Titanic after witnessing the ship's cat carry her newly-born kittens, one by one, down the gang-plank --rather than stay on board with her litter. What a smart kitty! I've read of others who had similar premonitions -- some didn't go, but some went anyway. Some survived, some did not.
Actually, I might have simply stayed put in Ireland (which is where I place my imaginary, historical self). I like to imagine being so relieved to still have my life! Life is a gift. We only have one!
Therefore we must make wise choices, and take good care of ourselves and others...
