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In article .com,
wrote:
I'll admit, my post says little about cruising but also a lot. The
original post got me all maudlin about my dead friends and the crazy
trips we all went on. Oddly, my friend who was the ultimate 'I did it
my way" person thought he was a failure. The rest of us cavers thought
he was a genius. His family thought he was the blacksheep pervert of
the family and prefferred to pretend his bizarre life did not exist.
They had no concept of his life so when 30 cavers showed up at the
church for his funeral dressed in muddy boots, caving helmets and muddy
coveralls, they didnt get it.
Since I am unable to do serious caving anymore( Age you know, I now get
dehydrated in hot humid places, getting old isnt for wimps) I try to
get some of the same feelings of discovery from being on the water. It
isnt quite the same but being waaaaay out at night has a little of the
feeling of an alternative universe.
It seems, the message is not to delay doing the things you really want
to do. For me, the hard part is deciding which is the most
interesting.
This, in my mind, goes with the Twain quote. Yes, going and doing
something now makes it more difficult to doing other things (though not
impossible if you plan thoroughly), but if you don't do *ANY* of "those"
things, you will have much to regret at the end.
When I turned 30, I ran into a number of people, mostly cute women as it
happened, who had had near-death experiences. The recurring theme in
their commentary was their recognizing the number of things they'd
wanted to do that they wouldn't have been able to do had they died, and
that they were persuing. That generated my list, of which I've checked
off most of the major items: Skiing, sailing, flying, SCUBA and so
forth. Of them all, sailing has turned out to be the activity that can
also include "travel", a continuing item.
Another contribution to my personal list is that my Dad retired at 59
and died just under a year later, essentially from boredom. He had no
continuing activity beyond working for the same company for 45 years.
[Yes, he started at 14.]
My wife is now two years older than her Mom's survival; I'm approaching
my Dad's final age. Cruising is one of our possibilities, though it's
not our only one. We're not full-time but in our area with a 6 month
cruising season, we spend 30-40% of our season on the water as I
maintain a full-time job.
it could be said that your caver didn't contribute to society, that he
dropped out. I believe you don't believe that.
I also believe that cruisers can contribute at least as much as he.
--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/
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