Summer Sunrise at the Indian River Inlet: The Set of the Soul
“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution.” - Ansel Adams
So many passionate winds blow against us. One wind could be the stress caused by the underachievement of a colleague at work. Another might be the way our spouse is acting, or the way our kids are pushing our buttons. The buffeting wind from above could be how upset we are about the government, maybe having to do with the pandemic and vaccines. Whatever the winds you're personally dealing with may be, they can make you anxious and unhappy, if you let them.
I'm here to tell you that you do not. You cannot control most of those things. Truly, you probably don't even have much influence on them. You can only do your best at work, perhaps compensating for the weakness of a coworker in the same way that they may compensate for one of yours. Your spouse and kids are unique beings with their own thoughts, words, and actions. You may have some influence over them but you will never, thankfully, control them. If you try, you court disaster. Be the best partner and parent you can be. That's all you actually control. As much as what the government is or is not doing may bother you, even enrage you, you still have little influence on it. Write letters to your representatives if you wish. Run for office or host political events yourself if you have an agenda. But allowing yourself to lose your temper, your emotional control, because of the government is to give the very thing that bothers you complete control over you. Why do that?
I wrote the words of the poem I quote for you below in the Charge Books of newly selected Navy Chief Petty Officers for nine seasons. Each year, the Navy selects the highest performing First Class Petty Officers for advancement to the rank of Chief. But before the selectee can truly ascend to that exalted rank, they must be tested and accepted by their fellow Chiefs, those who have come before them and are the keepers of the traditions of the Navy. And one of many tools that are used to impart knowledge unto the new Chiefs is by the use of a Charge Book, a special notebook carried by selectees everywhere they go so that any genuine Chief can inscribe important bits of wisdom for the selectee to reference later for inspiration. I had several ways to do this when adding something to a new Chief's charge book, quotes being one of them. As I wrote in my post from October 23, 2021...
One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.
Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Make sure your sails and rudder are steering your course through life, and not the fickle winds.
As the stoic philosopher Epictetus taught, "It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." Our lives are not like debris in the wind, pushed around capriciously by outside forces. We set the sails so our ship goes where we wish. Be a sailor then, and not a passenger.
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‘Summer Sunrise at the Indian River Inlet,’ Charles W. Cullen Bridge, designed with a nautical theme, evoking the sails and masts of tall ships, lower Delaware, in luscious dawn color.
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