Planning to Sail

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. - Oliver Wendel Holmes

Sailing is a passion garnered from years of muscling the mainsheet against the force of the wind on the sail while countering the impact of the waves with the push and pull of a rudder in a fourteen foot sailboat. That activity forged a minimal, yet ever present childhood ambition to become a pirate. Combine that slight daydream with a rather low level fear of moderate heights with a distinct aversion to scrubbing floor boards and my place on a pirate ship is easily the crow’s nest. (Add a monkey or a parrot and one can complete the picture.)

First, the 360 view must be incredible. Watching the horizon line may sound boring to some, but it must be better than the one-thousandth viewing of a sea of car license plates in front of me at either end of the day. Second, rum could be fun up there in the crow’s nest, me thinks.

But third and more to the point, I’m a planner. In a world of vast unpredictability and the ever present danger of that which spawns mutiny, I find tremendous comfort in seeing what lies ahead. I like knowing what way we’re going.

Every six months, the blank monthly calendars are printed and a plan is laid out: the weeks the kids are under roof are in green highlighter, what events and concerts would be fun are in bright red, and the times that are most advantages to take precious vacation time are carefully lined out in yellow.

At times, this feels overly planned out. All the spontaneity life offers is sucked out of life to be listed as a monotonous to-do list. But that outlook is resisted at every turn.

No, these actions with a calendar are just pre-thought out opportunities. Preparing for the struggles against the daily forces, the wind and the waves, the pull and the thump, no, they are just part of it. Those happen and are organic to the plan. Sailing through it all is impossible without some preparation. And, I like watching the horizon line.