Many, many years ago I used to be Laser fleet captain at Rutland Sailing Club in the UK. Without a doubt, Rutland Water is the best inland sailing locale at which I have ever sailed and Rutland Sailing Club has the best facilities of any of the sailing clubs of which I have been a member before or since.
When I see a picture like this (actually of the recent Laser Midlands and Eastern Grand Prix at Rutland) I feel strong pangs of nostalgia for the old days, and I still sometimes wonder why I allowed my ambition to progress in my career to tempt me to move away from this very special place. I think I would have been perfectly happy to spend the last 23 years sailing these waters in fleets like this.
7 comments:
While struggling once over one of those decisions that seems so important to us at the time - which subject to choose as a 'major' in college - a wise old English teacher counseled me that it really wouldn't make too much difference which I chose.
He said we're mostly who we are from the inside out, and not molded as much as we might think by what life throws at us. In other words, our lives will likely turn out pretty much the same for us no matter which path we take because we are who we are.
I think he was right, despite what this fellow says:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Its also the case that a lot of what happens in life is not planned anyhow, so your life can turn out different than expected.
Sounds like you have a great family, successful career and can sail when you like. Bit of a result really!
But do understand - there must be days when you miss Marmite on toast ;)
Food for thought O Docker. But it does seem that the decision I made in 1988 to move to the USA probably had a greater impact on my life (and my family) than any other decision in my life.
The move has turned out very well for all of us and I have no real regrets. Just those of pangs of nostalgia when I think back to the few years we lived in Rutland. And it's not just about the sailing. We had a beautiful old house in a small village deep in the English countryside. The whole life style was idyllic (or it seems so in respect.)
But I also know I would probably had become bored and frustrated in the job I had then if I had really stayed there another 23 years (not that my employer would have let me do that anyway.)
JP - life would indeed be unbearable without Marmite on toast. I have my sources of the stuff, even here.
Obviously this is what drew you to sail at Goosepoop and Spruce Run while living in NJ rather than braving the parkway every weekend.
I must say, I've never seen you so
nostalgic.
Aaah, the Garden State Parkway!!! Who could resist a weekend drive through the park, looking at the gardens, enjoying the birds and flowers and other wildlife, reveling in the country charms of one of the nation's most scenic drives?
Tillerman, do I detect a bit of sarcasm? The NJTP is rather nasty for much of its northern reaches with oil refineries and airports, etc. But the Parkway is for the most part a winding roadway through hills and trees, going from deciduous to coniferous, spanning the great Raritan and Mullica rivers, ultimately coming to a one-lane each-way road with a stop light at mile zero. Now that's charming.
Mullica Mullica. So good they name it twice!
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