The Life Saving Station

There was once a crude little life-saving station that stood on a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur. It was just a hut, and there was only one life boat but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. In time, the little life-saving station grew.

Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that it was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those rescued. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged station. The redecorated place soon 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 club.

Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired life-boat crews to do the work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, and there was a symbolic life boat in the room where the club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and 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 in chaos. So the property committee immediately added shower facilities outside the club where shipwreck victims 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 club's life-saving activities as these were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as the primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the original. It also evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but now most of the people drown.