I never thought I would here those words – man overboard. We had the drill that told us what to do if someone was to “fall” overboard.

The instructions were to immediately throw an item that would float at or close to the spot that the person went overboard.

Our next instruction was to shout “man overboard” to a crew member. I wonder what happens if a woman goes overboard? I’ll leave it at that unless you want to give me your thoughts on that.

That was the first day of the cruise.

About 36 hours later, my wife and I were having dinner at about 8pm in one of the restaurants on board the Princess Caribbean Cruise line.

To our utmost amazement, we heard those words over the PA, “man overboard.” It was the captain’s voice.

You could hear a few gasps and see the look of concern on the faces of the other passengers. My mind began to process the plethora of scenarios of how this could have happened.

• Did someone get pushed?
• Was it alcohol related?
• Was it a fight?
• Was it suicidal attempt?
• Was it domestic violence?

And on and on my mind went.

Some of the other passengers and servers were looking through the windows for any sign of the rescue attempt that was underway.

I asked the server what the protocol was for an incident of this kind. She said that this is not something they are privy to. It was her way of saying, “I don’t know.” I’m not sure if that was totally so, or that was the answer they were to give when asked.

I have a hard time believing that all staff members are not briefed on issues of this kind.

I accepted her response and continued to eat.

After about an 45 minutes, the captain again interrupted our meal with “ladies and gentlemen, I want to report that there was a successful rescue of a 24 year old male, who was taken to the Emergency Medical Unit and is doing okay.”

An applause went up almost immediately. Everyone clapped and breathed a sigh of relief.

Something that I realized that I failed to do: I failed to pray for the person. It’s now that I’m writing this blog – hours later – that I realized I missed an opportunity to pray. Lord, forgive me.

Two hours after the rescue, we were sitting in the theater to watch a ventriloquist perform, and the Cruise Director, updated us on the incident. He told us that a 24 year old man jumped overboard and was rescued within nineteen minutes.

He was rescued by a well trained team of staff personal and he was proud of the team. The young man walked on board and was under medical observation. Again, there was an applause from the crowd for the successful rescue and for an efficient team of emergency responders.

As I think about this incident, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people have jumped overboard in their relationship and is in need of rescuing. Some might not want to be rescued. They want to remain overboard. Others do so because they have given upon life.

Yet there are those who jumped because of wanting to call attention to a pain they are experiencing within the relationship. It is their last ditch attempt to get help or make a strong statement.

One thing that I know and that is this: it’s the story that one tell themselves that leads to this conclusion.

My take is that they need a new or alternate story. They need to re-story their story so that they can take a different approach in communicating their displeasure. Their jumping was an act of communication.

I believe there are better ways to do so. That better way is the re-storying the story.

Your question might be, “how do they do that?” If you leave me an example in the comment section, I’ll try to use that as an example of the “how to.” Go ahead and leave your comment, story or question, below.