LIFE IS GOOD
When
you sail at night, take a good look at the midnight sky. You can
see billions of miles and millions of light years in every
direction. From the beginning of time, astronomers have searched
the sky for signs of life, and so far the only place where life is
known to exist is on planet earth.
Earth is
unique because it’s chock-a-block with life; it’s everywhere, and
it’s relentless. It’s in the air, on the land, and in the depths
of the sea. The reason earth is such an awesome place is because
it’s a sanctuary for life in an otherwise hostile universe.
Sailing around the world in a yacht allows you to see life in all
its glory. Because you sail in remote locations beyond the reach
of the developers and destroyers, you see life in a different
manner than city slickers do. Their version of life is limited to
a few birds in Central Park, dogs on leashes, and animals in
zoos. It’s an extremely skewed view of what life is all about.
In cities, it’s hard for people
to appreciate or experience the richness of life as they ride
subways and work in concrete jungles. Their constrained view of
life is to wake up in the morning, commute, work somewhere all day
long, commute again, spend the evening at home, and then repeat
the cycle the next day. When that is their daily routine, they
may not even notice that that their planet is alive. The only
living things they see may be people, pigeons, dogs and cats, plus
a few cockroaches thrown in for good measure.
Contrast that to the life of a
sailor totally immersed in our living planet. He wakes up in the
morning to the sound of seabirds in his small patch of paradise.
Sea turtles swim by, and when his sailboat gets underway,
porpoises escort him out to sea. The sea is alive with mahi mahi,
Spanish mackerel, and tuna. When he makes a long passage
offshore, wandering birds often rest on deck using his yacht as a
floating island. Sometimes the birds even land on his finger and
eat from his outstretched hand. When he visits the Galapagos,
all manner of creatures tolerate his presence totally unafraid
because they know he means them no harm. That’s the way the world
was meant to be, full of life that surrounds us on all sides.
Now that I am back in “uncivilization”,
I am hearing talk about how hard life is. Wars, sub-prime
mortgages, foreclosures, the high cost of health care, drug abuse,
political corruption - the list goes on and on. Unfortunately,
I’m not hearing much talk about how good life is. There’s a
perceptual problem here. We are focusing on the dross and slag,
when there is pure gold right in front of our eyes. Life is pure
gold, and life is good.
Life is an awesome miracle. The fact that we are here on planet
earth means that we won the lottery of life. We won first prize,
and all of the living things that surround us are our most
precious possessions.
When I sailed around the world, the most important discovery I
made was that life is good. Everything that’s alive, including
you, is a massive miracle. Don’t waste your time complaining
about the things in your life. Forget about your woes and
worries, and instead, focus on the miracle of life You are a
miracle and you live in a miraculous world.
A fitting epitaph at the end of
life’s journey would be: “Been there, done that, life is good.”
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