Rebel Yell, Pt. 5 - In Search of a Wayward Wind

Part V

IN SEARCH OF A WAYWARD WIND

The Wayward Wind is a Restless Wind, and a Restless Wind, will make you wander.
. . . . . H. Newman & S.Lebowski/T.B. Harms, ASCAP

No man has earned the right to intellectual ambition until he has learned to lay his course by a star which he has never seen.
. . . . . Oliver Wendell Holmes

Since time began, the sea has held a certain fascination for almost anyone who gazed in wonderment and awe at her many moods and droned about what lay over the horizon. The very nature of the sea lends itself to fantasizing. It is not hard to imagine standing on the deck of a ship whose prow points towards places yet unseen. Man in charge of his destiny . . . up to a point. Thereafter a slave to kismet by the very forces which make it so intriguing in the first place. One can be somewhat in control, but never completely. Head into adventure in exciting and exotic places where each landfall is the beginning of a new way of life but always in the recess of the mind is the knowledge that what happens each day while on the way has to wait until it unfolds. No one can open this book and read the last chapter. This uncertainty, over which no real degree of positive control can be exerted with even a modicum of finality by mortal hands, is what puts more curry into the true sailor’s pot of sea-stew.

Blue water sailing truly is the ultimate fantasy which holds every promise of escape from the mundane. Even if one starts from scratch, this adventure is entirely within the practical reach of any person who dares to want it enough. And, even in this day of sophisticated communication systems and voyages into the outer reaches of space, the sea still calls to the adventurous. Providence has willed that the opportunity will always be there.

Unfortunately, too many dream but do not answer the call for a myriad of reasons all of which boil down to the bottom line: lack of initiative. That common cause is always self inflicted. If one really has the desire to transfer fantasy into reality, there is no circumstance which can deny him the opportunity. Lack of money, or time, or work, or marriage, or even poor health is not a viable excuse to the one who is determined to grasp the desire for adventure and run with it.

And, the beauty of it all is that once done, once you have gone far enough to find that wayward wind you are on your way to making that dream a reality. Once that dream has become a reality it can never be taken away.

	Rebel Yell
Part IV	Part V	Part VI
Part IV: Chapter 3	Part V: Chapters 1-2

IN SEARCH OF A WAYWARD WIND

Part V, Contents