{"id":940,"date":"2012-03-10T10:24:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T02:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=940"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:50:07","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:50:07","slug":"on-the-future-at-sea-03092012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=940","title":{"rendered":"On the Future \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [03\/09\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cHe was sure that somewhere in the future there would be questions about muddy shoes and duckweed encrusted pink dresses. But that was the future \u2013 and it lay on the other end of a long warm afternoon that contained planks and ropes and a pond. The future could wait.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Good Omens<\/p>\n

It occurs to me sometimes that as people we are far too wrapped up in the concept of the future. We are obsessed with labeling and compartmentalizing our lives into little neat boxes that are easily described and easily sorted. If someone breaks the walls of those boxes, or presents us with a situation that simply doesn\u2019t fit<\/em> in them, we have a tendency to panic. That\u2019s not bad, far from it, it\u2019s just human nature.<\/p>\n

People sometimes think that out here we\u2019re free of that kind of social reliance, free of that kind of judgmental requirement. Not so. When you live the majority of your life in a closed environment where everyone knows everyone not by 6 people, but by 2 or less, where relationships are considered fresh meat for the gossip hounds and the daily events that go on behind the glitz and glamor of the guest world would make the average head spin \u2013 you get used to boxing your life up perhaps even more so than you do on land. The three biggest of course, have \u201cPERSONAL\u201d \u201cPROFESSIONAL\u201d and \u201cHOME\u201d scrawled across them in big black permanent marker.<\/p>\n

The biggest one next that, under personal, is a very small thing indeed, and the writing on it is tremulous careful McLain\u2019s script, as if whoever wrote it were trying to treat it as delicately as possible for fear you might damage its contents: \u201cFuture?\u201d<\/p>\n

As with anyone, there is never, ever, not a question mark.<\/p>\n

Even for me, despite the fact that I have my next two contracts signed , despite the fact that I know where I\u2019m going and know where my next paycheck is coming from, there is \u2013 as always \u2013 a question mark in front of my future.<\/p>\n

There always is, because the future is always ahead of us, we never catch up with it.<\/p>\n

Living in the present can be a difficult thing to do, especially when the future contains three weeks of semi-relaxation, and possible resolution to multiple conflicting issues made more difficult by distance. When the cruise gets to have under 50 days left (and as of today, we\u2019re at 49), you start to long for the end even though you don\u2019t intend to. Your mind races ahead to days when you don\u2019t have to live your life by a schedule (which is actually a challenge when you\u2019ve become so used to it), when you can log into the internet without worrying that you can\u2019t afford another card, when you can pick up the phone and know<\/em> that your call is going to go through without the aid of a dodgy satellite line.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine on board came up to me the other day and started to joke, then took one look at my face and put a hand on my shoulder instead:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you middle ground kiddo \u2013 you are one day closer. Every day, is one day closer.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hit the hardest point in the cruise to be honest. At the beginning of all this I said that the World Voyage runs in cycles, the first third everyone loves everyone, the last third everyone loves everyone, the middle \u2013 everything slumps. We try and focus on the present, try and psych ourselves up for the endless sea days and the low-lying exhaustion that seems to have permeated the ship…because while the guests can show their weariness, we cannot. Do it in your own cabin, on your own time.<\/p>\n

The show must go on, and all that.<\/p>\n

So yes, the future can wait. For now, I look forward to Hong Kong and all the rest, particularly to Naples and Greece…<\/p>\n

But in the back of my heart, curled there with the rest of my traveling \u2018home\u2019, is the warm glow that comes with the knowledge that soon I\u2019ll be able to wake up when I want to in the mornings, I\u2019ll be able to go for walks without worrying about where I\u2019m going or if I\u2019ll be safe.<\/p>\n

49 more days to go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe was sure that somewhere in the future there would be questions about muddy shoes and duckweed encrusted pink dresses. But that was the future \u2013 and it lay on the other end of a long warm afternoon that contained … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,40,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-world-voyage-2012","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}