SAFE ON SHORE
A Nautical Parable
There was once a fleet of ships lost at sea. The fleet had been lost at sea for a long time. The ships had been lost at sea for so long that the people on board told wild mythical stories of distant times, for no one knew how they even got to be lost at sea. All they knew was that at some point the first voyagers on this ancient fleet, both the crew and passengers, ended up creating families on board ship because it became apparent that they were not going to find land anytime before they died.
One day a ship helmed by a daring and compassionate captain decided that in order to save the families onboard his vessel, he would have to break with the rest of the fleet and steer off into the unknown in an attempt to find land. He reasoned to himself that such land had to exist, else where did all the people come from?
And so one day he broke with the fleet, much to the chagrin of the other ship captains. They chased his ship for a while but soon gave up when they saw they were getting too far away from the apparent safety of the fleet, which was all they had ever known.
The rogue captain soon faced more troubles than he could have imagined. He made his way thru rough seas and violent storms that threatened to sink his ship. He faced dangerous ocean serpents no one had ever seen before that nearly tore his ship apart, and was even attacked by whales at one point. His crew was beyond being upset with him, almost constantly complaining about his unwise decision to leave the fleet. Each day it seemed they grew more and more indignant, even threatening mutiny. The families of passengers were always gossiping about the captain, complaining to him, shouting at him from below decks, ridiculing him behind his back. Everyone was afraid they would drown in the angry sea. No one was truly with the captain. Though everyone respected his position (just barely) as captain, he was for all intents and purposes…alone.
Each day the situation grew more foreboding, but still the captain remained at the helm, convinced only by an innate Intuition that he just had to be correct in his reasoning—land must exist somewhere. Home must be somewhere.
Then just when even the captain was about to give up hope for the last time, something odd appeared on the horizon…
One evening while sailing thru strong winds and thick fog, he spots a light in the distance and heads for it. The closer he got to the light the smaller the waves became and the wind slacked to a steady helpful breeze. Closer and closer he got to the light only to see more lights next to it. His ship was no longer battered by waves, the sails were no longer ripping in the fierce winds and the fog lifted bit by bit until he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
There in the distance was a glimmering city seemingly made of light! And closer to his weather beaten ship he saw what was only a legend told among his people for eons—a harbor. Somehow…someway…the captain had had steered his bruised ship into the safety of an enclosed harbor jutting out into the ocean.
The ship’s families began coming out of their quarters below deck wondering what had happened to the waves they had always been accustomed to since birth. Some even disregarded the ships rules and entered the pilothouse where the captain stood at the helm with his hands at the wheel, too amazed and bewildered to reprimand anyone for the intrusion. The scene outside the windows had taken away his breath and his speech along with it. He was trancelike in appearance, unable to think or feel anything. As if guided by some unseen force, as if he had always known how, he steered his ship to the port that lay just beyond the bow. He carefully and slowly maneuvered his ship next to a berth and gave the order that no captain in his people’s history had ever given to his crew.
“Cast the mooring lines!”
Ancient ropes that had long remained unused lying on the deck at both the bow and stern were heaved onto shore by the crew and secured around equally ancient and unused moorings, all the while as the families held each other in anticipation of feeling beneath their feet a thing mentioned only in their stories—dry land.
Then all at once, the families of the ships gathered on the crowded deck began to cheer with uncontrollable joy at the miracle that had occurred.
Their tear-filled eyes now beheld a luminous city of unequaled splendor; a reality they had previously only assumed was a crazy myth that existed only in the mind of an equally crazy captain. But he was not crazy after all. He had been correct from the moment he broke with the fleet so long ago.
He had done what no other captain had done, what no other captain dared to do, what no other had even tried to do, what no other had thought was possible.
This captain had finally found home.
