On another note, I am not so impressed by Givens Life Rafts. I shipped my raft to them and got notice of delivery on December the 20th. I had to call and email 4 times before I finally got any kind of reply. Unfortunately, that only included letting me know they were under the impression there was no hurry. Apparently my raft has been checked in for testing, but since all the field service sites are shutting down they are swamped at the factory. I can't believe they are telling someone this that is in the market for a new raft. Practical Sailor is doing a study on life rafts in the next issue. I'll probably be looking for anything other than a Givens at this rate.
There have been a few ideas swirling around in my head I haven't completely sorted just yet. For some reason I keep thinking of the movie The Ice Harvest. Oliver Platt says "There is nothing left in this country for a man but money and p****." Hey, this is a family place. You can read between the lines.
The next one is a little overused in movies these days, but even watered down it is a great one. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so? When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others." --Marianne Williamson
John Playfair was a friend to James Hutton, the Father of Modern Geology. There is a place I visited in the UK called Siccar Point. It was at this location that Hutton found proof to the means by which the earth formed through massive upheaval and continuous erosion. Playfair wrote of the encounter at Siccar Point, "The palpable evidence presented to us, of one of the most extraordinary and important facts in the natural history of the earth, gave a reality and substance to those theoretical speculations which, however probable, had never till now been directly authenticated by the testimony of the senses. We often said to ourselves, what clearer evidence could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? We felt ourselves necessarily carried back to the time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of a superincumbent ocean. An epoch still more remote presented itself, when even the most ancient of these rocks, instead of standing upright in vertical beds lay in horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea and was not yet disturbed by that immeasurable force which has burst asunder the solid pavement of the globe. Revolutions still more remote appeared in the distance of this extraordinary perspective. The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow."The great philosophical and educational renaissances in history didn't occur as people dug deeper and deeper into sectioned off areas of study. The great scholars were typically students of all sciences including sociology or what we would call the "arts" today. While we have made huge advances in some areas such as microprocessor technology or molecular modeling we seem to store this information in silos rarely combining the information with other hard won insights.
Marianne's quote should give reason to pause. What really could be possible if each of us were completely uninhibited to achieve anything we believed to be worth while? Is it possible for a person to become an expert in many areas of study today? Or are we so specialized with such a breadth of knowledge that it is too much for one person? What could we do with all of the knowledge at a given persons fingertips?
It seems like we've grown stale in the U.S. anyway. So comfortable that we no longer hardly feel the need to try. So many safety nets that if you don't have the motivation to do or be anything that's ok. There is a program to make sure you don't have to. Have the rest of us gotten lazy? Necessity is the mother of invention, but do we really need anything anymore? I guess this brings me back to my first quote from Ice Harvest. it could be that the real opportunities to do something are in the developing world. I'd sure do like the idea of taking a look.
