johnbogie

Life's been good, I guess

my ragged old heart's been blessed

with so much more than meets the eye

got a past I won't soon forget

but you ain't seen nothing yet

i'm still learning how to fly

when you are depressed,

you are living in the past.

when you are anxious,

you are living in the future.

when you are at peace,

you are living in the present.

lau tzu

"Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy."

Albert Einstein

retired international executive pilot. during my career i was fortunate enough to have visited 52 countries on 6 continents and learned to love the diversity in peoples and cultures that abound on this planet.

To be fiercely challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these souls can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we non-committal companionship our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?