Flexibility

Hi kids!

Today we learn a lesson about palm trees, Chinese philosophers and planning.

A very long time ago, some say 2500 years ago, an old Chinese philosopher named Lao Tzu was trying to leave his town to move into the mountains. The guy in charge of the road knew what a wise man he was and wouldn't let him leave until he wrote down his knowledge in a book for people to use when he was gone. 

Instead of cussing about government burocracy and inefficiency stifling the innovations of the free market like some modern conservative cable channel commentators might, old Lao Tzu just got to business and wrote a book called the Tao Te Ching.  

One of the philosophies he wrote down was about flexibility. One of the things he wrote was:

"Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it"

He is talking about how water can wash things away even though it's not hard and strong itself, it's flexible. 

Man, I love philosophy!  It takes a lot of thinking to understand it sometimes, though. 

Well, old Angel Jen and I had our minds all made up to strike out on the big ocean for the longest, most dangerous trip we had ever taken, over a hundred miles of unbroken water hundreds of feet deep. We had bought food, stored water, made chicken salad, put everything back in its drawers, changed our clothes and brushed our hair. We were ready to go, even if we died. We studied the route, studied the landing places on the other end, studied the alternate routes if we had emergencies, I mean we were prepared. 

The weather was supposed to be for good strong winds in just the right direction. We have been waiting for a long time to get the right winds and, it seemed, they were here at last. West winds, blowing 15-20 miles per hour. 

Well, we woke up yesterday and the blesséd wind was blowing twice as hard as predicted!  Now usually I am a man of fixed purpose. I decide, then I act. What I say, goes!  It's part of the beauty of being me, decisiveness. 

But I looked at the palm trees, like the ones in this picture, all bent over and waving around and I remembered the old Chinese philosopher. 'Sometimes you gotta be flexible' I said. 'We'll live to sail another day.'

Man, am I glad I did!  I figured the wind would die down later but it never did. The boat hopped around on its anchor chain all day as the waves crashed around. If we had gone off shore in that we'd a been sunk!

So maybe tomorrow, kids. We still have the food and water, though some of the chicken got eaten (lime and chicken salad! A real scurvy beater!) and we will have to brush our hair again after all that wind.

But stay tuned!  The dream continues! 

John