The meaning of life ...
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 12 Sep 2011 11:36
|
Monday 12 September 0933 UTC 1033 BST
29:56.007S 013:20.772E
Wind Speed 6 knots SE, COG 340 Deg True, SOG
5.0Knots
Good Morning All
Last night was a very slow night and after covering
218 miles in my first twenty four hours I am probably going to be down to an
embarrassing 140 miles for the second twenty four hours.
When in Capetown I was faced with a forecast which
looked good for departure on Saturday but would leave my racing against an
incoming low to the south which if I was really slow I would get hit with
headwinds from the North West. If I could make reasonable time I might get
caught in the zone between the NE of the low and the SE of the resident South
Atlantic high where airs would be light and variable. If I kept the peddle to
the metal then with Saturdays South Easterlies I could just about hook into the
South Easterly quadrant of the high and ride that all the way to St
Helena.
As it was I made good speed but the high moved a
little further to the North West and that left my in light then still airs last
night. So it was non stop up and down trying to tease forward motion out of
my neccessarily heavy sails. At one point we were at a virtual standstill
and as the rolling, crashing of boom and flogging of canvas, which I can't
afford to allow got too much I used the engine for three hours - (this feels a
bit like "forvive me father for I have sinned"). I comforted myself with the
fact that the generator had to be run anyway so I replaced that by running the
engine, charging the batteries and for my efforts I think I may just have caught
the petticoat tails of the high or have been caught up by the north east fringes
of the passing low. Whichever it is I currently have 9 knots of
wind on my beam and I am making seven knots! Not bad for a big girl
eh?
I am starting to settle into a routine. Most sleep
is taking place in cat naps through the hours of darkness which are between 1800
and 0600. Yesterday I supplemented the snatchfulls of sleep I got through the
night with a wee noraig (doze) for about 15 minutes in the afternoon.
During the night on deck however both nights I noticed the effects of tiredness
in doing simple things wrongly. Things like not paying attention to the lead of
a sheet. Furling in the genoa and wondering why it was not coming out. I need to
force myself to stop and think clearly before doing anything.
First breakfast of cereal or fruit is about 0700
then tea and bread about 1000. The first couple of days I had soup for lunch
about 1400 and then some of Trish's lasagne for dinner about
1900. Then there are the snacks. I have
what can only be described as an obsession with Scottish Tablet. This is a
sweet delicacy remebered from most Scots' childhoods. But I am not a child
and constant ready supplies work there way to me from neighbours and
relations and are consumed in what is most likely teeth degenerating,
diabeties inducing quantities. Bloody
marvelous though.
In between times so far have been occupied
with reading and pottering around. I am currently reading The Personal MBA and
though it seemed like a heavy duty book so far it is a bit light weight in
content. Early days.
There have been no breakages so far, aided by
me backing off after sailing above 13 knots the other night! The only problem
was with a salt water pump which was hunting through the first night. I knew it
could not be a burst leaking into the bilges as there was no bilge pump running
and suspected the anchor wash down hose in the drained chain
locker forward. On investigation in the morning it turned out to be
so.
Ther is a clear blue sky today again and outside
temperature is still about 16 deg. C though the breeze feels colder. Water
temperature is about 17.5 deg. C.
Today being Monday and my first full week away from
business I have a number of business correspondences to complete when up loading
and downloading daily e-mails I will take a new weather forecast from the GRIB
files. Yesterday I had a good number of well wishing e-mails which Trish
forwards onto the boat and which are really appreciated. Thank you all very
much.
If you don't have the boat mail then you can
continue to send mails to rhiann {DOT} marie {CHANGE TO AT} gaelforce {DOT} net It
is always interesting to receive your comments. However they are all
disappointingly complimentary - are there no brave souls among you who can
venture some criticism?
Thats the sailing bit over now back to philosophy,
the meaning of life and God. Yesterday I dumped quite a heavy amount of
material on you which to make any sense of, would require one to first of all be
interested and secondly to devote a bit of clear minded thinking time to the
matter. I am certain that most of you (including my friend who sent me the
thought provoking e-mail in the first place) have no idea from yesterdays piece
what my thoughts on the matter of God or religion are. And that is just the way
it should be I think. However I am going to offer you all some observations on
the subject.
Since the dawn of time it seems there is physical
evidence to suggect that man in general has needed to create the idea of and
beleive in gods ( a book from the Thinker's Library called The Evolution Of The
Idea Of God by Grant Allen makes interesting reading on this subject). This
belief in a god or gods is perfectly understandable in the
absence of any other believable explanation or understanding of creation,
meaning of life and possible afterlife. This need remains a fact
for many people in the world today and that is good, providing they do not
force their idea of god or their religion on others.
Equally it should be perfectly OK for those who
understand or believe in a scientific explanion not to feel the need to believe
in a god. However the aetheists should not force their views on others either,
as it is unintelligent not to realise that many people have a need to believe in
a god and gain great strength and comfort from their faith
in that god. Therefor, "is there a god?" is
not a very intelligent question in my view. It is an irrelevant question from
one person to another. My answer to my friend last week should have given some
clue to my view on this question. If someone believes in a god or in God
then there is a God and why should that bother another individual?
Before mentioning religion I should say that I
clearly believe that the moral standard of an individual human being does not
depend on ones belief or otherwise in a god or following any particular
religion, nor are good moral standards exclusive to those practicing
any specific religion. I have seen with my own eyes and experienced all over the
world that people regardless of colour, creed, religion or belief or otherwise
in a god are generally "good" people and conform to what most of the rest
of the world would understand to be good moral standards. This in itself
could be the subject of a whole debate - but not today you'll be glad to
know.
By implication from the above you can see that I do
not believe that any religion is neccessarily the "right" one or better than the
others only that they are different. Though not very different. They mostly
require belief in and subservience to some higher power, conformance to a
set of rules which are mostly aimed at making society better (at least in
the view of those who espouse that religion) and then they promise that for
being good on earth you will benefit in an afterlife. That's all simple and
benefits millions of people round the world who need to believe, need a
structure in which to practice that belief and who develop a faith in their
beliefs that gain them strength and comfort in their lives. Why should anyone
argue vehemently against this? Arguments about detail and interpretation
of religions' holy books are just narrow minded and short sighted
irrelevances. Relions and churches who endlessly argue over their own
"rules" seem to forget the greater purpose they should be serving and
are simply driven by the self interest of poer hungry or egotistical
individuals or organisations to self destruct. This should not be a big
problem for those "outside" (the fractious religion) but unfortunately it
is demonstrative of a tendency over centuries for pointless arguments about
which way is "right" and which way is "wrong" to spill over into
bloodshed.
Sadly in the name of reigion men have
fought bloody wars, killed each other and otherwise wronged great parts of their
fellow humanity. This undeniable fact would persuade many to say that
religion therefor is in itself bad. But that overlooks the fact that it also
serves millions of people well and that church going is also part of different
people's culture and often a focus for community which many critics
ignore. It also overlooks that fact that millions of people have been
slain in the name of non-religios ideology such as the campaigns of Hitler,
Stalin and Mao - (to name but a few bad bastards). These same "bad bastards" you
see also turn up, wearing a religious hat but are clearly not exclusive to
religion. So again I say it is not a question of what religion is right or
wrong. That is an inappropriate question. What is right for one person or
one culture or society mat not be right for another. More importantly a question
to ask oneself might be "is my faith strong enough to adopt my beliefs
without trying force my view or religion on
others"
So to sum up, in my view. If you believe in
God then there is a god. Simple, and that should not bother anyone else. Though
you must not force your view on others either as some people do not feel the
need to believe. Whether people believe in a god or follow a
particular religion does not determine whether they have good moral standards or
not. There are bad people inside and outside religions. Millions of
people and societies round the world are enriched by their faith, what's not
good about that?
Just try and find your own peace, don't bug other
people about it and try to do for others as you would like to have others
do for you. Simple.
I am now going to find my own peice. I'm off for a
corned beef sandwich with lashings of tomato sauce and to study my MBA book to
see if I can find anything remotely useful in it. Tomorrow we may have to ease
up on the philosophy as I really need to go
fishing.....
|