Unless you are in a race, sailing is a fairly leisurely affair. You sit, you chat, you eat, and you fiddle with ropes. It’s easy to allow the boat to become your reference point and your world.
Typically, though, you have a destination in mind. In order to get there, you have to figure out where it is, your present location relative to that one, and the heading you need to be on to get there. The course you take may zigzag so that you can take advantage of the vagaries of the wind. Sometimes the bow will point straight at your goal. More often, you will head to the left or the right, port or starboard, where there is an opportunity for speed, then tack back the other way, always moving (though often tangentially) toward your goal.
Misery in sailing is easy. Don’t look where you’re going. Soon you’ll be on the rocks.
The same principle can be applied to life. Most people don’t have an instinctive, automatic sense of their ultimate priorities, any more than a sailor knows where the harbor is without glancing at the horizon. We are unlikely to reach or embody our life’s goals or values unless we have some inkling what they are.
For those wishing to homestead at the very bottom of the emotional valley, it is possible to know one’s core values and simply neglect to put them into practice. It is better still, however, if the values themselves remain obscure.
In order to prevent the appearance of a tiresome sense of meaning in your life, it is best to avoid contemplating the bigger questions of life—such as these:
Those wanting a heading for their lives quickly discover that it is difficult to answer any of these questions while scrubbing the toilet, sitting in a meeting, or waiting for a traffic light to change. Replies appear only when the mind slows and pulls itself away from the distractions of the moment. It is necessary to set aside time, sit back, and give one’s undivided attention to the task—without intermittently checking for new e-mail, indulging idle fantasies, or listening for the washing machine to click off.
This makes it easy to remain in the dark about any bigger vision for your life: simply stay busy. Involve yourself as much as you can in the activities of the moment, slotting in task after task to follow the one you happen to be working on, so there is never time for wide-ranging contemplation. Rather than stepping back to examine the shape of your life’s forest as a whole, remain fixated on the bark of the individual tree before you.
Should questions like those listed above enter your mind, feel free to entertain them—but only when your attention is split between introspection and some other chore. Without the full wattage of your brain, you need not worry that you will arrive at a life-enhancing realization.
If, despite your best efforts—or as a result of prior self-examination—you do know what your life could be about, all is not lost. Mind your own busy-ness. Lose yourself once more in the endless detail of life and do not act on any aspect of your goals or values.
If, for example, care of the environment is important to you, ensure that you use this only to fuel your resentment and despair. Do nothing to contribute in a positive way. Donate neither time nor money, and live in a way that repudiates your goal (perhaps seeing just how big an environmental footprint your lifestyle can create).
Your top priority should be to prevent the shining sword of realization from rising out of the lake into your awareness. But if it does, ignore it and behave as though it weren’t there. Given a bit of time, Excalibur will once again sink beneath the waves, perhaps forever.