So you are in trouble.
And I mean, big, big trouble.
It’s like this. Going to Bali sounded like a good idea at the time. So you signed up for some group trip hosted by National Geographic or something. It was all going fine and good until your plane lost an engine and went down somewhere in the South Pacific. You used the seat floatation device.
So.
Now, what do you do?
Well, historically, most people would send out an SOS.
But what exactly is it?
By definition, it is an international code signal of extreme distress, used especially by ships at sea.
But what exactly does it mean?
Those three simple letters: SOS.
Okay. There you are, washed up on some little island. You can write SOS on the beach, with some big stick in hopes a plane will fly over. That SOS is the best chance of being rescued.
It must mean something important, it would seem.
Well. Talk to the sand crab because the letters SOS don’t stand for a thing. They don’t mean anything. Not “Save Our Ship.” Not “Save Our Souls.”
Everything you’ve heard was bunk. Just like Harry S Truman doesn’t have meaning for his “S,” neither does SOS.
So if “SOS” stands for nothing, where did it come from?
It came about as a replacement for a visual distress signal.
When Morse code was developed along with the wireless telegraph machine, they needed a symbol for the Universal distress alert.
As we all know, in Morse code, dots and dashes are assembled in different configurations. They represent the different letters of the alphabet. And this sequencing allows messages to be sent wirelessly all over the world using radio equipment. Even from sinking ships.
But when Morse code started, different countries used different codes for emergency situations. This often resulted in confusion and mishaps.
They needed a standard solution. Leave it to the Germans. In 1905, the German government published the “German Regulations for the Control of Spark Telegraphy.”
It mandated that German wireless operators use “… — …” (three dots, three dashes, and three dots) to signal an emergency. This didn’t have a thing to do with the letters of the alphabet. Instead, it was quick and easy to type. It was also unmistakable.
As it turned out, those dots and dashes spelled “SOS” in Morse code.
Everyone agreed it was way better than “SSSDDD,” which the Italians were pushing for.
And then there were the Americans, who wanted O-H-S-H-I-T. (I’m joking about the Americans.)
Anyway, the bigwigs at the International Radiotelegraph Convention discussed all of this. The term SOS was voted in as the official international distress signal and went into effect on July 1, 1908.
So there it is. The abbreviation means nothing, but at the same time, it means everything.
But the bigger picture is this. Sometimes, we all need help. And we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it, no matter what words we use. People need people. It is the only way we can make our way in this world. Every human is dependent on other humans. Always have been. Always will be.
And with that, we should be ready to help others too. When we can. If we can.
No one is an island. And if we are stranded on one, we should put out that SOS.
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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
— Dalai Lama
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“I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.”
― Jana Stanfield
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Save our ship? Nope. Guess again.
