A QUOTE FROM STERLING HAYDEN'S BOOK, WANDERER

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm
foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine
traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at
sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the
wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are
contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture
until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is
all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford
it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in
the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security
we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know
it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day,
heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working
activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in
the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our
economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time
payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our
attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie
caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb
is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy
of purse or bankruptcy of life?

- Sterling Hayden (Wanderer, 1973)