A visible act of God

I’ve seen four acts of God in my life. This post is about the third.

The first two happened to me. It’s been one month since we all saw the fourth. The recipient characterized it last night when prompted by Elon Musk:

“It’s very much an act of God. It’s a miracle that it happened, and I’m honored by it, I’m honored by it.”

Forty years ago, when on my third submarine, I was in the control room, standing watch as the contact coordinator. I didn’t have much to do because we were on the surface at nighttime, rolling and pitching in heavy seas, and no other ships were crazy enough to be near us.

The officer on deck KD was alone topside in the sail. The lookout normally stationed with him had been sent below decks because of the seas.

The ship’s captain KS was on the #1 periscope scanning the horizon. The chief-of-the-boat was in the control room monitoring water coming through the latched-open hatch.

After one pitch, a hundred gallons gushed into the control room, followed by the unlatched hatch slamming shut. I remember thinking KD had a minute to live if he wasn’t already drowned.

The COB and the captain immediately started to crank open the hatch. Although there were hundreds of pounds of sea water on top pressing it shut, it couldn’t wait to be drained.

After what seemed like a long time, the COB and captain drenched themselves opening the hatch. They ran up the ladder, unhooked KD’s safety harness, and lowered him thirty feet into the control room.

The ship’s hospital corpsman checked KD’s vital signs as satisfactory, and he and the COB took KD below decks. After closing the hatch, the captain reversed course, and informed the chain of command of his decision.

I was raised to be religious. My first impulse is to not necessarily interpret what I see as coincidental.

Back to July 13: I haven’t understood viewpoints contrary to a visible act of God during this past month. Can people discard what we’ve all seen? Have we been propagandized sufficiently to believe what we’re told and not our lying eyes?

It may seem from studies I’ve curated on this blog that I think there’s something people can individually do about extending our lifespans. But I don’t believe that. And why is almost everybody doing things in their lives that encourage reducing their healthspans that may shorten their putative lifespans?

I don’t have an opinion as to whether an individual’s life has a determinable purpose revealed by an act of God. I didn’t get purposeful revelations the first two times acts of God happened to me like what happened to my namesake on the road to Damascus. It just wasn’t my time to die. I lost track of KD and KS before timely soliciting their opinions.