A costly mistake
The French railway company SNCF has recently taken delivery of 2,000 new trains. There is just one problem: they are too wide to fit into many of the country’s stations. Apparently they were given the wrong platform measurements. As you can imagine, this is a costly mistake (it will cost the equivalent of £12 billion), which will also take some time to rectify (alterations are still needed on a further 1,000 platforms).
Obviously, we all make mistakes – although some mistakes are bigger and costlier than others! We are finite creatures, who do not know everything and cannot foresee every event, and the wise person acknowledges their limitations. We are limited both by our creatureliness (we are not the Creator) and by our sinfulness (we are naturally rebels against the Creator). There is no reason to suspect any sinful behaviour in this particular error – although that is possible – but it certainly highlights our human limitations.
Telling this story also reveals that we tend to enjoy the mistakes of others. That is not to deny the genuine humour in such stories. And it is partly because we do not have to bear the pain and cost ourselves. But isn’t it also because it makes us feel superior? “We wouldn’t have made that mistake,” we say. What is it about us human beings that leads us to want to be superior to others, and even to rejoice in their misfortunes?