Philosophy and yachting

[billskip]

See #9......

Great minds.....

 

[rotrax]

I have just re-read - and not for the first time, it IS a particularly good book - "Coasting" by Jonathan Raban.

Lots of interesting comment in those pages, as well as a bit of sailing.

He went to Hull Uni. His tutor was Phillip Larkin.

Raban theorises about Larkin's poetry. He says "If poems can teach one anything, Larkin's teach that there is no desolation so bleak that it cannot be made habitable by style. If we live inside a bad joke,it is up to us to learn, at best and worst, to tell it well."

I rather like that.

Better than the chalkboard in the gents lav at the Turf in Oxford early 70's. For some weeks it bore "Life is like a $H1t sandwich. The more bread you got, the less $H1t you eat".

This was replaced by "Life is like being a pube on a bog seat. Sometimes you get pissed off".

Yes, Raban says effectively the same thing, but with far more sensetivity.

 

[LittleSister]

Since retiring a while back I sometimes describe my occupation as 'Freelance Philosopher'.

(I am open to commissions! )

 

[Wansworth]

Since retiring a while back I sometimes describe my occupation as 'Freelance Philosopher'.

(I am open to commissions! )

Can you supply a kit?

 

[LittleSister]

Can you supply a kit?

I suppose that is one way I might be able to make this occupation remunerative!

 

[Wansworth]

I suppose that is one way I might be able to make this occupation remunerative!

Or Descartes in the home,handy thoughts to brighten your day………….I m sure there’s a future there

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Can you supply a kit?

Can be bought. What's the worst that can happen!
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1611584577/mental-health-box-for-stoic-philosophy?gpla=1&gao=1&
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/120...&click_sum=e494674c&ref=related-3&pro=1&sts=1

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Sir RKJ wrote a chunk of philosophy to encourage Pete Goss. You can read it at the start of Goss's book "Close to the Wind", which also contains a lot of his philosophical thoughts. I wrote it out for both my kids at the start of their independent lives.

 

[Blueboatman]

One of my sisters did a bit of PR work for Pete Goss . After some lecture/meet n greet they came out to the car park and he quipped :” I can find my way around the world and back to rescue someone , so why can’t I find the car.?”

Or words to that effect

You know you can sail with someone so self deprecating yet effortlessly capable.

 

[michael_w]

Problem is most sailing books are terribly dull. Most are good for a nap after a page or so. An exception is Motessier's Sailing to the Reefs which is quite funny in some parts. Ought to be titled Sailing on to the Reefs, as he wrecks two boats.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Problem is most sailing books are terribly dull. Most are good for a nap after a page or so. An exception is Motessier's Sailing to the Reefs which is quite funny in some parts. Ought to be titled Sailing on to the Reefs, as he wrecks two boats.

I sink therefore I am?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

'Afloat' by Guy de Maupassant might appeal to the OP, and others.

It begins:

"This Diary contains no story and no very thrilling adventure. While cruising about on the coasts of the Mediterranean last Spring, I amused myself by writing down every day what I saw and what I thought.​

​

I saw but the water, the sun, clouds and rocks,—I can tell of nought else,—and my thoughts were mere nothings, such as are suggested by the rocking of the waves, lulling and bearing one along."​

Free of charge from: Afloat (Sur l'eau)


Is it a good read? I don't know, I haven't read it. But I'm going to..

If he saw rocks, he had plenty to occupy his mind! I once wrote about 500 words describing the lithology and diagenesis of the stone floor tiles in my sister-in-law's apartment. It was quite fun! And they were quite straightforward granitic rock. Imagine the fun of considering a complex metamorphic terrain! If there are rocks, there's plenty to exercise your mind. And then we can consider the fascinating statistics of wave heights, the imponderables of weather systems, the biology of the sea and much more!

 

[Stemar]

I'm no philosopher. Socrates said, 'By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.'

I'm very please to say I got a very good one.

 

[billskip]

I'm no philosopher. Socrates said, 'By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.'

I'm very please to say I got a very good one.

I'm a philosopher twice, I'm not going fot thr hat trick.