Going Around

Well, the news is filled with stories and photos of Ellen MacArthur, who just completed a solo round-the-world sailing venture, in record time. Much less than 80 days.

This was not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of determination, drive, whathaveyou, to be willing to go through the sleep deprivation, the sensory deprivation, the fear. I've been on the water for long periods, and it really isn't a good place to be alone.

Acknowledging all that, I have to say that I have always had a difficult time believing that operating machinery (a hi-tech speed-sailing-yacht, a Formula 1 or Indy car, hydrocarbon-belching dirt bike, etc.) can be classed as a sport. Seems more like a chore to me ---

As well, going in a circle seems non-productive to me. A Formula 1 race consists of cars made up to look like cigarette cartons starting at Point A, proceeding past Point A some number of times, and ending at ... Point A! The idea is to do this faster than the other cigarette cartons. I strongly believe that if I never left Point A to begin with, I would arrive there in very nearly zero elapsed time, thus easily winning the race. And saving a lot of energy in the bargain.

Ellen began some 70-odd days ago in Falmouth, and is today back in Falmouth. What has changed is, of course, that she is now a celebrity. This in spite of her horribly choreographed "spontaneous" victory dance. I can imagine her blushing when she views it on the to-be-often-repeated-on-BBC film clips. A celebrity! Is it at all possible that celebrity, rather than accomplishment, was her goal from the getgo? You think? There is today (probably always has been) a considerable human wish to be famous. Rich, too. Today, we are able to pursue celebrity far more easily than before. Wierd and wonderful TeeVee shows enable us to become famous overnight, in return merely for spending a few days in a box filled with scorpions, or somesuch heroic stupid endeavor. I guess, thinking about it, I'd really rather sail in a circle around the world than sit in a box full of scorpions. Or appear on a TeeVee show that encouraged such kinds of activity.

So, congratulations Dame Ellen! Hope the aftermath isn't too much of a letdown.