Saturday, July 24, 2010

Pessimist Optimist




My post on Wednesday The Last Time betrayed my somewhat pessimistic mood this week, probably caused by suffering from The Man Cold which has meant no running, no sailing and no playing with my three wonderful grandkids all week. What else is there once you get to my age?

But I was cheered by the wisdom of my readers who helped me to put things in perspective and to see life in a much more optimistic way.

O Docker counselled...

In time, life starts making more decisions for us than we make for ourselves. We often won't get to decide when will be the last time we do something.

But if you take every exciting thing that happens to you as if it were the last time, you may find things in the moment that you would have otherwise missed.

Sail every sail, write every post, drink every beer as if it were your last.

Some day, it will be.

And Panadabonium philosophized...

There is only now. The past is gone, the future is not here...

When you sail your Laser, sail. Be in the present moment. Don't worry about "last sail". Just sail. When it ends, it will end. Nothing is permanent. Without ending there is no beginning. Without death, there is no life. These are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin.

Blog, sail, be happy.

And on Thursday, Simon Payne reminded us in Perspective that even a champion sailor like him knows how to be "in the present moment" and enjoy an evening of sailing for sailing's sake.

Today you have to race sailors who are bred to win world championships until the end of time, so given the need to make every second count it was a surprise when I experienced a wonderful evening in my Mach 2 on Tuesday night. I was the only Moth out, like I had been years before, and the harbour was empty. I was pleased that I wasn't too far gone to be reminded of the soulful beauty of foiling and occasionally low riding across the harbour...

It was just fabulous actually, I could have stayed out all night and very nearly did... it was great to briefly get away from the constant communication that evades our lives... Facebook... the constant news barrage... blogs... I swear one day it will be possible to die from binary exposure.

Mothing takes on many forms, and its "pick me up" ability is never lost on me...


Thanks guys.

And here are three more people that make me glad to alive.


4 comments:

Baydog said...

To alive or not to alive, that is the question?

Certainly three reasons to love, that's for damn sure.

Bursledon Blogger said...

so who designed the pessimist dinghy?

Tillerman said...

The Pessimist Dinghy was designed in 1947 by American Dirk Pills. The hull was designed to be made from one sheet of 8' x 4' plywood because Pills believed that if he used two sheets the boat would be too expensive and would never be popular. Pills also believed that the boat would be too difficult for children to sail, so he planned to market it to adults. However, he abandoned his attempts after joining an apocalyptic cult that believed the world would end on 6 July 1948.

EscapeVelocity said...

Is the Pessimist Dinghy half empty?

word verification: hydro

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