Now, it has somehow been drummed
into us from a very early age that paradise consists of a desert island with palm
trees, golden beaches, coconut palms, and warm, turquoise water. The dictionary
describes paradise as the Garden of Eden, or alternately, “any place or
condition of great happiness.”
I have visited a few places that fit
the description of paradise during my wanderings on boats and I learned a
useful lesson. Paradise doesn’t
last. Paradise is paradise when you
first get there, at least when you get to the first one. But paradise becomes
less of a condition of great happiness the longer you stay there. And by the time you have moved on to your second
or third paradise it becomes the normal old humdrum life you wanted to escape
from in the first place.
The lesson I learned is that
paradise isn’t a place but a state of mind. You can find yourself in paradise
in any place where you happen to be at the moment.
There are some aspects of those
tropical paradises of the South Seas and the Virgin Islands that you rarely
hear about. Loathsome cockroaches for a start. No ice-cream parlors. No fresh
produce. No movie theaters. No pubs. No hospitals or even doctors. No diesel
fuel when you need it most, or any of the other trappings of civilization that
we have gotten used to. In short, after a few days or weeks, paradise isn’t all
that it’s cracked up to be.
I’m not saying it’s a waste of time
to explore the South Seas. Just don’t
expect it to be one continuous paradise, that’s all. Desert islands are wonderful places to
explore in the short term, but most humans thrive on change. They need to be
stimulated and challenged. We’re also
gregarious
animals and need to meet new people and cope with different circumstances. One
desert island soon becomes like any other desert island and paradise gradually
begins to look like the drippy old Pacific Northwest from which you fled in the
first place.
If paradise is a condition of great
happiness, as the dictionary suggests, then cruising in a sailboat too often produces
happiness at too great a cost, which leads in turn to great unhappiness, unless
you’re a multi-millionaire.
The fact is that you can’t buy paradise,
or even happiness, with expensive equipment. The joys of cruising are
serendipitous. The more directly you pursue them, the more they elude you. But
if you go about the honest business of guiding your boat from one harbor to
another, doing an honest day’s work as any good sailor might, then happiness
will creep upon you when you’re not looking, and ambush you.
Today’s
Thought
Where
choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the
absence of any need to choose this action?— Arthur Miller, After the Fall
Tailpiece
Quote
from The Guardian, London:“American record-holder Rowdy Gaines was surprisingly eaten by Bruce Hughes in the men’s 200 meters freestyle.”
