“The ship is always off course. Anybody who sails knows that. Sailing is being off course and correcting. That gives a sense of what life is about.” —Michael Meade
The inherent truth of Meade’s words has resonated with me since I was a boy learning to navigate a boat with my father. He showed me how to simply plot a course and hold it true by making consistent minor corrections and avoiding overcorrections. He taught me that being a little off-course was simple to correct but that invariably major course corrections would also find their way into the mix due to misconceptions of the course, new developments in the current course, or — as most often would happen — distractions that would allow the course not to be minded for a time.
But there was another enigmatic life lesson in the learning of the seafaring ways of my father’s fathers, and I think that was what Meade was saying. Life is a perpetual process of evaluation, action, reevaluation, correction, and more action. It is precisely because we cannot see into the future that it is uncertain, and this can cause much consternation if allowed to do so, but the truth of the uncertainty does not yield to such worry. We must face up to truth of the course, commit to it, and be comfortable with the rhythmic cycle of being off-course and correcting.
In the history of human governance, it is rare to find such an experiment as the one being played out in real time here in the United States — wherein a nation was founded on the weak precipice of manifest destiny by founders, in their wisdom, glutted with the notion of the equality of all men while simultaneously denying the natives of this land that equality as well as the opportunity to secure their own (a topic for another day).
The notion of a nation governed by the people in the interests of natural and universal liberties would require by its very nature that such a people would be able to operate from the maritime parable of constant and neverending course correction. It was audaciously ambitious, to say the least.
And depending on your perspective of our history, it is safe to say that this country has equally done quite well at this while at the same time completely fucking it up. I suppose it is the nature of things in the context of the flawed nature of humans.
But the pinnacle embodiment of our ignorance and demise in this country can be quite succinctly seen in our current election process for the next president. It seems we have arrived at a place where the our self-governance operates in a vacuum or an echo chamber of one extreme political view or another. The rhetoric being purported — suggesting that one candidate has to save the country from the idiocy and lunacy of another because if it does not happen the end will certainly be upon us — is itself idiotic and indicative of lunacy.
People have been predicting the end since the beginning, and today — with all the technological advances withstanding, the only thing that really differentiates today’s issues from those of a century ago — is really no different save the intensity of the notion that one man or woman alone is the answer, that we must be divided on this and stand with one or the other, else our voice has no place in the conversation.
From whence cometh this notion that we have become incapable of rigorous civil discourse in the place of sophomoric and childish pontification? When did ratings replace maturity?
I just returned from a trip on the Colorado River. For 18 days, I had no contact with anyone in the world save the people I either traveled with or met on the river. Any concern I had with my ongoing life back home would have to wait on my return, and this lead to the invariably humbling process of looking at those canyon walls formed by time and water and the hint of their laughter at me and my temporal concerns. Anyone who has even merely seen the Grand Canyon from even the most frequented and touristy of locations will likely attest to this notion, but take me at my word when I tell you that when you are rowing the near 250 miles of its length, it really sinks in.
To progress as a nation, to right the course, we must first know what that course is. And that is where I think we have perhaps lost our way as a nation. People with ideas and agendas that are not predicated at all with any of the notions of the liberty sought by the founders are vying for positions to carry forth the mandates and agendas of the lobbyists who steer them. And if there is any correction to made at this point in history, it is twofold.
First, we must take up the courage we once had to face the unknown and uncertain future with faith in our ability to do so. We must stop giving away our own good judgment and liberty so freely to the convenience of of lifestyles and amenities and do the hard work of being engaged citizens, engaged not only with our constituents but with our counterparts as well. For it is in our ability to get along that we find our greatness.
And second, we must forego the notion that we exist in the vacuum of abysmal and apocalyptic doom if we don’t always get it exactly right. No person who ever plotted a course and dared take to the open sea would have reached landfall in any direction if they panicked and gave up every time they even suspected they had lost their way.
The wisdom of those canyon walls tells that they have been here long before us and will be long after we are gone. Perhaps we should consider revisiting the notions of our foundations as country and not be so damn rabidly paranoid about the future. All of us.
See you out there.
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Thank you Dallas for putting forth, in your eloquent and interesting style, the notion that the best way forward is through the disciplines of balance and perseverance.
True conversation is made not only of presentation, but also of pausing to listen and reflect on what is being put forward by others. I don’t believe that any particular camp or candidate owns the exclusive rights to disappointment, anger, frustration, or for that matter, wisdom or vision. I’d also like to suggest that we might be more productive in the tasks at hand, if we were to consider that simply because others do not agree with you, does not automatically make them either corrupt, or stupid. The best adversarial relationships are those that challenge you to think and to grow, not those that bully you into a corner, because they can.
(And yes, in case you’re wondering, my opinions on this subject are from first-hand experience and not second-hand media reports.)
NEW TRIAL DATE – July 13th… Keep the faith Brother…. All I know is this… Lee Strasberg would be doing 25 to life based upon his teaching methods… GOD KNOWS – he was one of the best… If justice were a Hollywood movie, Mr. Davenport would get his job back in the end… Keep the peace, don’t stress, hold onto that nature vibe, and we will see the lion roar when the time is at hand…. I’ll be out of the country after seeing the Dalai Llama in mid June n SLC… GOOD LUCK