Lifevest? No thanks

This week, friends pointed out to me that some of my pursuits are not without danger. Off-shore sailing, they said, requires an off-shore lifevest. They are not wrong. And since I don’t have such a lifevest and in fact am going off shore in a couple of weeks, well, I got myself one.

It made me mull over the concept of safety, and all the activities I wish came with warnings and lifevests: growing older, living authentically, falling in love.

I say this partially in jest, and I certainly wouldn’t want to carry the metaphor to the end. But there is something about the vulnerability inherent in all of those things that reminds me a lot of being on a sailboat without being able to see land. You got your wits, your experience, your prepared and preferred actions, but when it comes right down to it, nature wins. All you can do is try to mitigate the concequences.

So why do it at all?

I’ll tell why I do it. All of those things - aging, attempting authenticity, being in love — are deeply painful at times, for sure. But they also feel exactly like a sun-warmed wooden deck under your bare feet. Super-present, hyper-real, equal parts impossible and inevitable.

In short: they feel like being alive.