During this period of in which I am assessing my potential venture(s), there is a sense of being adrift in the wind. I consider two quotations that stick in my mind. First, from Henry David Thoreau's Walden:

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

Now that thought may be depressing in itself, but it is concise in its description of the tendency common to most of us — no matter how dissatisfied we may be with our present state, we are reluctant actually to take the steps necessary to change it; there is always some weighty rationalization of why we should not. Opportunities do exist, and we follow them or not, by choice or default.

This thought brings me to the second quotation, a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox that was read by my sixth grade teacher. I could remember most of it after all these years, but I had a bit of difficulty finding the exact wording.

The Winds of Fate

One ship drives East and another drives West,
With the self-same winds that blow;
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tells them the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate
As we voyage along through life;
'Tis the set of the soul
That decides its goal
And not the calm or the strife.

Perhaps some day I will rig my sails, launch this site in earnest, and be a little less quiet in my desperation.
 
 

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