By actor Sterling Hayden...
****** "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? |
