…and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
The careful text-books measure
(Let all who build beware!)
The load, the shock, the pressure
Material can bear.
So, when the buckled girder
Lets down the grinding span,
'The blame of loss, or murder,
Is laid upon the man.
Not on the Stuff - the Man!
But in our daily dealing
With stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling
Of justice toward mankind.
To no set gauge they make us-
For no laid course prepare-
And presently o’ertake us
With loads we cannot bear:
Too merciless to bear.
– “Hymn of Breaking Strain,” Rudyard Kipling
Very appropriate, BrainGlutton.
My choice was what came to mind as I watched the bus head calmly past the site, undoubtedly with a schedule to keep, but I was curious to see if anyone would get the reference.
You give the whole damn poem and the author citation, so it’s impossible NOT to get the reference.
Nah, there’s four more stanzas I omitted. (Not that copyright is a problem with Kipling.) BTW, Leslie Fish does a great musical setting.
One of my favorite poems, and one of the few I actually memorized involuntarily through reread & worship. I refer to it nearly every day to keep my ego in check.
But Pink Floyd was even more concise:
Out of the way,
it’s a busy day,
I’ve got things on my mind.
Before I die, I hope to be able to visit Brussels and see the painting that inspired the poem.
OK, I have to admit I don’t get this. Are you saying it would have been better for the bus to stop and let out a bunch of wide eyed lookie loos to get in the way of the trained, professional, emergency personnel? If a disaster happens in the middle of nowhere, and you’re the only person around, absolutely you should stop and render aid. If a disaster happens in the middle of a major city, and emergency personnel are already on the scene, ISTM that getting out of their way is the best action you could take.
No, no, I get it.
It’s just the contrast of the bus, keeping its schedule, sort of trivializes the disaster. Six people died. And the bus just rolls on. I don’t mean to say that it shouldn’t have done so; I merely mean the contrast between the mundane and the tragic is sharp.
And because W. H. Auden said it better than I did… I quoted him.
Be brave! Beaux Arts specifically acknowledges the triviality, to the rest of the world, of personal Big Deals.
6 people died. The perceptible ripples of their deaths affect the construction folks, the families, inevitably some lawyers, and maybe a few other people. Meanwhile, the people on the bus go up and down just a few feet away. It’s the perfect affirmation that Auden nailed it.
And the torturer’s horse still scratches it’s butt. Yep.
The impression I got from the video – the bus gets a green light a few seconds after the collapse but waits through all of that cycle and most of the next green light, then moves on just after the first fire truck arrives – is that the bus driver radioed in a report of the collapse.
He did doubtless radio it in. Once he was assured help was on the way he kept on going. What else could he do? Keep his bus in place and in the way of what doubtless will be some heavy rescue equipment that needs to be in that area?
Apparently some poets & artists think so. Stupid art.
Philistine.
Well here is a bump. Note that this is zombied but there is a followup:
$227 million awarded to survivors and family members of the collapse.
Its not certain who is paying what, but it turns out that Salvation Army had some liability as they poo-pooed concerns about the structure.
The destruction crew is in jail, having been sentenced a couple of years ago.
I will be happy to never read about ‘guillotine amputation’ again.