Clear Sky on the Gannetsway.

The stars have never seemed brighter than on these last couple of nights, and the blue of the sky by day is all the better for the absence of vapour trails. The Earth seems to taking a big, deep breath. While life goes on fine here for Fiona and me, one cannot fail to be affected by the trauma that is going on in the world. 

From the point of view of gannetswaysailing, it is hard to talk of anything other than the Big C, and also hard to imagine that I might have anything useful to add to the tsunami of words being expended on it; yet I think it is worth sharing an aspect of the business that greatly fascinates me.

From the sixties up until this moment, the one dominant idea in Western culture has been that of personal autonomy. As my generation looked back on the past, we were united in being more or less horrified above all at the way such autonomy had been sacrificed on the altars of the usual suspects, duty, patriotism, religion etc, which now however appeared to have been, more often than not, foolish and misguided, besides being used on all sides for nefarious purposes. 

This did not of course prevent us from finding all sorts of other gods to worship; pop music, sport, all the panoply of consumerist trophies, indeed even science tended to become a kind of cult. It has been interesting to watch 'the science' about the pandemic turning out to vary with differing ideological mentalities. One favourite trick of cults is to persuade us that in their case we are in fact enlightened rebels. When push comes to shove, we are mostly afraid of taking personal responsibility, but we are adept at finding ways to disguise this fact from ourselves, and also anxious to disguise our anxiety and insecurity both from ourselves and others.

When Western people talk about the shock of loosing jobs or businesses, I guess that it is the loss of the sense of autonomy and of dignity which they derive from them, rather than rational fear about money and survival, however critical this may be,  which is the more deeply distressing. It is noticeable that people with a strong sense of being in control, and who have not suffered too much major trauma in their lives, are all the more likely to have difficulty accepting that constant of growth which we call 'crisis'. 

Does one react with yet more frantic efforts to 'get ahead', as if anyone can really get ahead on a chronically sick planet, or does one take what is for many a wonderful opportunity to take a step back from the rat-race and take a good look at our fundamental values and reasons for living? Of course I consider that the latter course is the way to go; but how does one get there, in the midst of confusion and bewilderment, and the ripping up of the rails upon which we were just lately clacking along quite nicely? It may help to start by recognising that we had not much business to be 'clacking along nicely', considering what our way of life has involved for so many other people, but also for our own inner selves. 

'Horseman, pass by!' From his grave, the poet Yeats admonishes the strong and confident horseman not to bother with him and his poetry. The horseman hates to admit that actually everything we have is gifted to us, and the fact that we have come as far as we have is one long string of miracles. Some of the best memories that I have of cruising are those of conversations with other sailors, especially the poorer ones, who are generally lurching from one crisis to another, interspersed with little moments of bliss that are all the more beautiful for that! In one such conversation, I referred to the fact that we certainly did not make ourselves. My interlocutor replied that if we didn't, at least our parents did; he simply could not admit that our lives stem from and refer to some kind of transcendent reality, call it Evolution, Nature, God or what you will!

Well, now is the time to rediscover that, whether we like it or not, the human race and indeed the planet are all in some sense a single organism, and successful living is a matter of being able to accept and relate positively to this fact. Such has been the true religious quest of humanity. I might further urge you to consider that the only possible way for a person to find true autonomy and fulfillment is within relationships of love, and frankly there is only one possible candidate who might enable such a relationship, when it comes to respecting personal autonomy while also accepting our place within a single entity on the cosmic scale!