Islands - Port of the Unknown
What would you take to an island?
Isn't an island a beautiful metaphor for life?
You're kind of trapped somewhere but full of all the possibilities to choose to go, leaving the safety and voyage into the unknown. Who knows how far, who knows how long, who where to go? Just surrounded by open water.
Here in Wanaka, Aotearoa, you can find the only island on an island on an island on... - Mou Waho.
Maria chose to organize a trip to this special place on her birthday with her friends. We swam to the last small island on the island. The island was not super special for me, another piece of land, just harder to enter. But the experience made it special. From the island³ we sang a birthday song for Maria, because she organized this special trip with 18 friends. I think a birthday song on an island³ is special.
Another island special for me is Ruby island. I swam to Ruby Island two times. Isn't it a dream for everyone to have an island for yourself. I've had an island for a sunny afternoon just for myself - what a feeling. It wasn't my property, none someone else's at this moment. I was just there with nothing then in my wetsuit.
If you're free from everything you own everything.
I went there one night on a SUP to sleep there.
The way out was hard, cold, windy and wavy but on the island the wind calmed down and I felt safe. I slept under a beautiful sky of scars and pure freedom for the next day. The next day the lake was calm and I paddled into a beautiful day.
I went back to work the same morning, but already had the feeling to live a full day. So, even if it was just one night sleeping on an island, sleeping anywhere can be a story. In the end I just slept and went somewhere like every other day.
You can create a story with every day, every moment, every single step you go. Remember, to write a good story you and maybe someone else would like to hear or to read and you would like to share with other people.
Lord of the Flies
"A plane has just gone down. The only survivors are some British schoolboys, who can’t believe their good fortune. Nothing but beach, shells and water for miles. And better yet: no grownups.
On the very first day, the boys institute a democracy of sorts. One boy, Ralph, is elected to be the group’s leader. Athletic, charismatic and handsome, his game plan is simple: 1) Have fun. 2) Survive. 3) Make smoke signals for passing ships. Number one is a success. The others? Not so much. The boys are more interested in feasting and frolicking than in tending the fire. Before long, they have begun painting their faces. Casting off their clothes. And they develop overpowering urges – to pinch, to kick, to bite.
By the time a British naval officer comes ashore, the island is a smouldering wasteland. Three of the children are dead. “I should have thought,” the officer says, “that a pack of British boys would have been able to put up a better show than that.” At this, Ralph bursts into tears. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence,” we read, and for “the darkness of man’s heart”. (Lord of the Flies, William Golding)
“Life has taught me a great deal,” it began, “including the lesson that you should always look for what is good and positive in people.” (The Real Lord of the Flies Story: Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
The Beach (movie):
I actually believe we learn a lot of being alone. Sailors and people who lived on an island out of society have some crazy, easy human based thoughts. The movie, The Beach with Leonardo Di Caprio, is probably the most famous movie about an island, some quotes: (https://www.moviequotes.com/s-movie/the-beach/)
“Never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It's probably worth it.”
“I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for. Because it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something. And if you find that moment, it lasts forever.”
“I just feel like everyone tries to do something different, but you always wind up doing the same damn thing.”
“You hope, and you dream. But you never believe that something's gonna happen for you. Not like it does in the movies. And when it actually does, you want it to feel different, more visceral, more real.”
“The only downer is everyones got the same idea, we all travel thousands of miles just to watch tv and check in somewhere with all the comforts of home, and you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?”
“Look, no offense and all. But, you’re fucked in the head right?”
“If I was being completely honest, I was just like everybody else: shit-scared of the great unknown.”
“- Richard: I'm American.
- Etienne: So?
- Richard: I think in miles, not kilometers.
- Etienne: Okay, so how many miles do you think it is?
- Richard: I don’t know, but it looks like a long way away.”
“In a shark attack, or any other major tragedy, I guess the important thing is to get eaten and die, in which case there's a funeral and somebody makes a speech and everybody says what a good guy you were. Or get better, in which case everyone can forget about it. Get better or die. It's the hanging around in between that really pisses people off.”
I had nothing left to offer but pure reflex. Pure reflex and mankind's basic drive for survival, that somehow shouts: “I will not die today”.
“Anywhere you go, desire is desire. The sun cannot bleach it, nor the tide wash it away.”
Sailing
A ship is not built for the harbour...
"There is not such a thing as an atheist on the ocean in a lifeboat."
“I can't control the wind but I can adjust the sail.” ― Ricky Skaggs
“To reach a port we must set sail –Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― Mark Twain
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” ― Helen Keller
And a good TED talk about sailing: The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world, Dame MacArthur (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooIxHVXgLbc)
The Island Taxi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-xMFNDugPI)
