Why was I spared from Amtrak Train 188’s crash?
By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
(CNN) “i think the Amtrak i just got off just crashed in philly.”
I texted that note to my wife on the night of May 12. Less than an hour earlier, I had been riding Amtrak Train 188. I got off, as usual, in Wilmington, Delaware, one stop before Philadelphia.
The train left late from Washington, and the air conditioner was wonky, but the trip had been otherwise ordinary. I walked home from the station and glanced at Twitter, where I saw this:
My friends and family know I commute via Amtrak, so I posted short messages on social media to let people know I was OK. I was a bit rattled because I’d been sitting in the front of the train. It looked, from the few images I could find, like the first two cars had caught the brunt of the damage.
But my life hadn’t been in danger and I hadn’t witnessed any harrowing scenes. I don’t believe in fate, I wrote half-seriously on Twitter, but maybe I should.
Soon, notes like this starting rolling in.
Others suggested that God had spared me or angels had saved me, and I should be grateful. Which I am. But to whom? And for what?
As a religion reporter, I’m usually on the other end of those questions. Just this month, I wrote a story about how Buddhists and Hindus view natural disasters like Nepal’s devastating earthquake. Now my questions had boomeranged back.
As the Amtrak crash casualties became more clear — eight dead; many more badly injured — I didn’t feel lucky or saved. I felt sick.
The morning after the wreck, a friend asked how I’d slept.
“With a bottle of bourbon and two Tylenol PMs,” I joked.
The truth is, I hadn’t slept at all.
By Thursday, the trains were running again between Wilmington and Washington, and I walked back to the station. Passing a newsstand, I saw the faces of the victims displayed on front pages. An unsettling wave of sadness, empathy and guilt washed through me, flushing my face and welling in my eyes.
Additional Reading
The Ever Present Question of Suffering
A Cordial invitation to Sir David Attenborough to be a Theist
Categories: Highlight, The Muslim Times