Serendipity A-New
"You don’t reach Serendip by plotting a course for it.
You have to set out in good faith for elsewhere and lose your bearings serendipitously."
- John Barth, The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (New York, 1991) (via Richard Boyle’s version of "Three Princes of Serendip")
***
With the help of some sailors and many other friends, I think I am finally understanding this…and learning the lesson of how to be the antithesis of George Gray:
"I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid."
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid."
– Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) "George Gray" – from Spoon River Anthology Read more of the anthology here
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