The Journey of Life

The Journey of Life

1987 11 November 20-21 The Journey of Life (407) But do they give such careful consideration to the journey which will take them to the brink of the grave and beyond? It would not appear from present human behaviour that many are keenly interested in that inevitable Final Journey.

A book entitled, Unsafe At Any Speed, written by an American lawyer and published in 965, analysed to what degree the mechanical engineering of a motor car guaranteed the safety of its occupants. As the title suggests, the degree of safety offered was so low that it seems remarkable that anyone should have wanted to travel by car at all. This same author wrote a number of books on the perils of the modern machine, but “Unsafe at Any Speed” was the one which really made the American public sit up and think. Everyone from government officials to industrialists was startled into thinking not just about how luxurious or short a journey could be made, but about how safe it could be made for human life. Such serious consideration was given to this, that it sparked off a revolution in the motor car industry which had repercussions all over the world. Now, the feature of their products which car manufacturers display with the greatest pride is the safety factor in overall performance.

When a car is travelling at high speeds, all kinds of unforeseen accidents can take place which may be serious, if not actually fatal, for all those involved. To meet such exigencies, cars now have ‘active’ and ‘passive’ safety arrangements built into them, the ‘active’ set designed to anticipate and prevent, or minimize accidents, the ‘passive’ designed to deal with eventualities, should an accident actually take place.

When the safety aspect of car travel was spotlighted in this way, people all over the world promptly began to give their attention to it. Why were they so prompt about this? Naturally, anyone who travels by car is very serious about wanting to reach his destination safe and sound, and it was precisely this self-interest which forced people, everywhere to give this matter such careful consideration.

But do they give such careful consideration to the journey which will take them to the brink of the grave and beyond? It would not appear from present human behaviour that many are keenly Interested in that inevitable Final Journey. Few care to give it serious consideration. Few are of the opinion that even greater safety precautions need to be taken on it than on our everyday earthly journeys. People nowadays are so preoccupied by the mundane cares of the wayside, that they hurtle onwards, in pursuit of the material, quite unmindful of what their actual, ultimate destination is to be.