Guest Post by Daniel: Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!
I am sure we all remember that quote from Auntie Mame. It has always been one of my favorites. And each time we see the movie I am sure most of us feel like we want to go out and take control of life. Yet it seems that all too often something stops us. Maybe it is working extra hours to get that new job, trying to pay off the house a few years early. It really doesn’t matter what the reason is. It seems to happen to all of us. When I notice it is happening to me I read this quote by 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 from 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?
by Sterling Hayden (1916-1986), sailor extraordinaire
My point my friends is that life is too short not to take advantage and enjoy life. David you want to go back to Scotland someday. As they say in the musical Rent, “No day but today.” I know there are health challenges, but who is to say they won’t be more harder next year. Take a chance make it happen.