Recently, I started to read a book called “a stranger in a lifeboat.” In this novel, a spectacular and fancy yacht, “Galaxy,” exploded during its voyage; nothing was founded after the rescue team came, not even the debris of the yacht. It soon became breaking news, for it was the billionaire named Jason Lambert who built up this breath-taking and great stuff, where he held something like a global summit on it. Leading figures and big names in different fields are invited to this vessel to spark new invention ideas or the well-being of human society. People guessed it might be a conspiracy intended to shake the world economically and politically. However, nobody would know. The gigantic thing disappeared entirely for people on the land, with no clues or hints. While there was an adrift raft, lost direction in the boundless Pacific Ocean, ten people escaped from that deadly explosion struggled to survive, including Jason Lambert, guests and crews from the yacht, and a strange man called himself “Lord.”
Why is this novel so intriguing? The accident made everything people originally have, wealth, talent, fame, and social status vanish. After the explosion, nothing worldly was left behind; they were all stuck in a life raft, feeling starving, thirsty, physically and mentally suffering. They are the same creature that is eager to survive. While the strange man appeared, called himself “Lord,” and said until all people on the boat believed him could he save them. It might sound ridiculous initially, while things that happened at sequence gradually suggested that the man was not average at all. He could stop the bumpy waves and even roused a seriously injured woman from the explosion. While is that man truly Lord? It still hasn’t been unraveled.
Initially, I considered it a typical motivational book, while the more I am in the story, the more I start to contemplate what the story wants to convey. The stranger in the vessel told the victims he could save them. Some of them scoffed at what he said, regarding he was just insane. Others start to doubt he might be the god here to save them from torture. What these plots enlighten me is when we are all under a matter of life and death, will we still believe in belief and faith? Belief is untouchable and obscure, unlike money and other material stuff. The capriciousness of fate might disperse all the savings of a frugal life at once, while something deeply rooted in our heart and thoughts eventually become clear and vital to support us. The belief might be not only our religion but also the pursuit, the insistence, and prospect. The explosion is probably the metaphor of any predicament we encounter in life. The strange man, the Lord, might suggest the belief of ourselves. The awful survival situation put people of the same height, which has nothing to do with fame and gain.
Since I haven’t finished the book, I cannot tell who is the strange man exactly is. While I do wonder what my belief is now, what supports me to work hard and pick up new challenges? And What if I don’t have any belief as Lambert?
Personally, I don't have any religious belief. But I do believe that there are spirits of different frequency that only a few of us (and animals) can see and so-called gods who are actually just celestial beings of higher levels that visited Earth millenniums ago. People record and worship them for their supernatural abilities.
ReplyDeleteSo, to me, the gods in all religions and legends are aliens. They might have the good intention to help us sometimes, but we don't always have to count on them or give them credits for our successes in life.
Have faith in yourself!