A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE

The recent news of someone I really care for becoming seriously ill has made me reflective of how our lives are changed by simple twists of fate.

How have we arrived where we presently are in life except for these simple twists of fate?

Had a friend of mine not stopped me when I was mowing my lawn to tell me that he was entering Law School that fall would I have EVER gotten the urge to attend Law School myself ?

Had I not started up a conversation with a young man working on a sailboat in Lahaina, Maui in the Spring of 1964 would I ever have gotten a job working on a sailboat, learned to sail and developed a love the Sea and sailing ?

Would I ever have developed my unrelenting desire to one day sail around the World ?

Had I not have concieved my first child on my birthday in 1967 would I have not been able, legally and properly, been able to avoid being drafted into the military and be sent to the Viet Nam war?

Would my name be carved on a long black wall in Washington, D. C. for all to see and none to remember?

Eventually, would I have ever wound up here, on a sailboat, in Fiji, bound to fulfill my lifelong dream of sailing around the World ?

Would I ever have had the adventures, good, bad and ugly, as I've had on this trip?

Or, would I still be pushing legal papers around, defending criminals and putting up with my fellow lawyers?

Would I still sit in front of the Boob Tube every night, mastering the use of TIVO and looking forward to a new episode of "24" or Monday Night Football ?

Would I have resumed sliding down the slippery slopes of my depression and alcoholism ( after all, I am of Irish ancesty you know) into poor health and eventual oblivion?

Instead, thru some simple twists of fate, I am here in Fiji, albeit alone, trying to accomplish my lifelong goals of sailing around the World, learning new cultures , meeting peoples and learning new languages.

I decided that once my obligations in life had been met that if I were ever going to fulfill my lifelong dream I had better get started before age, injury, illness, disability, unforseen responsibilites or some simple twist of fate prevented me doing so.

I think that it is a far,far better thing to try and fail rather than to fail to try.

I resolved that when I'm finally facing my death and about to "Shake off this mortal coil" and take that final voyage to "The Undiscovered Country", (Yes, it is from "Hamlet"), that I would not have any regret of having to think, too late, "If only.........................................".

Regrets, sure, I have many in my life. Who doesn't?

I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made the difference.( Credit to Robert Frost).

I don't regret having failed to try or to have taken the road less traveled by.

That has made the difference.