Since you're "signing off" you may not see this. But just a quick response
to the quotation you had. I think it had some very nice sentiments that
are of course the core of many beliefs. (Although I am glad I have been in
the "grove" long enough to buy a Potter...) However, I would hesitate to
deny God too quickly, especially while sailing! Even a mild storm can make
me offer up the following:
"Thou, O Lord, that stillest the raging of the sea, hear, hear us, and save,
save us, that we perish not." ( From forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea.)
This can be a handy chant while working the bilge pump. :-)
Happy sailing
Doug
P14 588
Sputnik
-----Original Message-----
From: Xanwar1@aol.com <Xanwar1@aol.com>
To: wwpotter@tscnet.com <wwpotter@tscnet.com>
Date: Saturday, August 22, 1998 8:13 PM
Subject: temporary split
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> West Wight Potter Website at URL
> http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Hi ya-all, just a note let you know I'm signing off temporarily till I get
>moved and get a new address. Enjoy the list, and learned a bunch, (like
what
>a reef is and why you need one in Kansas....Potters aren't supposed to run
>with the rail in the water!)
>
>Something for you to think about....I love philosophical discussions:
>This is a quote from a sailing book I'm reading, the guy is describing his
>drive to circumnavigate the world. He dreamed about it for 25 years before
>doing a two year trip. The book is "The Breath of Angels" by John
Beattie.
>
>Butch Evans
>P-15 "Top Banana"
>Xanwar1@aol.com
>
>"If we don't die young, we usually end up leading a life of subdued
>frustration and get stuck in a groove, but the only difference between a
>groove and being in the grave is one of depth. Along the way to that grave
in
>the comfortable groove, you might get a new car or a greenhouse or, if you
>really hit the big time, a holiday home - but these things are palliatives,
>the opiate of a materialistic lifestyle that is impoverished through lack
of
>meaning. I wasn't interested in the trappings of material success - all
they
>lead to is entrapment in spiritual failure - and the conventional rewards
of
>career advancement meant nothing to me. With each passing year, I knew I
>would become more enfeebled and the mad passions of youth would give way to
>the cautious sobriety of middle age. Whatever happened, I didn't want to
end
>up slumped in an armchair in an old people's home looking back on a life of
>comfortable but frustrated existence.
>I also knew the world is a big, beautiful place, and I wanted to experience
as
>much of it as I could in the split second of eternity that was allocated to
>me. I had seen too many friends die young to wait any longer to fulfill my
>dream. Life is too precious to be squandered in denying dreams, even if
they
>turned out to be sour. I was determined to try and take hold of my life
and
>squeeze every drop out of it. There is no God, no meaning, no purpose -
all
>we have is love and existential experience. The sea was where I might lose
>one but where I knew I would find the other."
>