Day 127: The Amazingly Insane Race

I don’t want to tempt fate, so I am knocking on wood and crossing my fingers as I type (not easy) – but I think I may actually make it to the end of this voyage without running out of anything vital – like toilet paper, Larabars, or functioning iPods.

I’ve been doing regular inventories since before halfway, and monitoring my consumption of various essentials. A tin of butter lasts me about 10 days, a jar of tahini 12 days, and so on. Where need be, I’ve rationed. Wet wipes, which I use for toilet tissue, looked to be a scarce commodity, but the Indian method works just as well, and I have infinite amounts of water while my watermaker continues to function. So now I’m feeling cautiously confident that I will make it to landfall without any serious decline in my standard of onboard living.

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It makes me wonder why we’re not better at doing this collectively and globally. Given the finite nature of certain resources – fossil fuels, minerals and precious metals, endangered species – why aren’t we husbanding them more carefully?

I suppose the big difference is that there is one of me, but 7 billion of us worldwide. While I am on board Sedna, I have no competition for my limited resources. If I use them up too quickly, the only person who suffers is me. But globally, we seem to be in some kind of insane race to get our hands on scarce resources before somebody else gets to them first. It’s a zero sum game – I win, you lose.

Except, ultimately, we will all lose, unless we start thinking more holistically. And that is going to take one heck of a shift of consciousness. Pigs may fly before we achieve it. Mind you, I used to think that flying squid sounded improbable…. so you never know.



Other Stuff:

Things calming down out here. There was no need for me to pump out the deck lockers this morning, which made a nice change. The downside is that, despite a hard day’s rowing, my mileage was less than impressive. But at least it was all in the right direction.

Mum is out of her cast – hurrah!! She is now getting used to her newfound freedom. There have been many similarities between her plight and mine – it made me laugh when Mum pointed out that we both needed two sticks to get around – and although I am now envying her liberty to walk about, in about a month from now I, too, will be rediscovering the joys of walking.

Quote for the day: “God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” (John Muir)

Sponsored Miles: Thank you to Tom Grimmett. Larry Grandt sponsored Roz, but is sadly no longer with with us.