Ultimately true, Dave.
I thought most folks carked it in
bed....usually of old age and its related infirmites. Beating the tomtom in the wigwam is a rare wallet-calendar event rather than a weekly-planner one, in that state.....though from experience in aged care, the drive is still there only the damn car won't start.
Interesting, the discussion about actual risk vs. perceived, and misconceptions. A lot of
money is made that way, based on a lot of worrying, and/or the desire for convenience.
Most western people these days die in the womb, before birth...I did the math once and was sick for days: in my country alone, to the tune of over 300 per hour during business hours. Yet we let the Testicle Squashing Association fondle us in ways that attract lengthy gaol-terms if we went about doing that to random strangers, and everything we transmit electronically is stored and sifted, on account of the equivalent of one day's worth of abortions in one small country, nearly 11 years ago.
In the meantime, people in the countries whence we get the raw materials for our vital plasma screens die of all sorts of horrible yet easily preventable diseases, or because the
food they grow rots before it gets to them because their distribution system is worse than ours was before engines became popular. Now I'm not off on a social justice rant, that's for folks of a political bent.....what I'm trying to say is that we hear lots of stuff over our lives but unless we're careful we get the wool pulled over our eyes
especially with regard to what is actually important, what is necessary, what is luxury, what is actually happening, and what merely sounds good because it's singled out or sparkled up for us.
Sure, sailing can be dangerous....but so are beds. Some folks scoff at me for my harebrained idea of running off to sea....one angle they try to worry me with is what happens to me when I'm old. If I never have
children, then I'd
rescue some poor slob from misery; if he/she will change my nappy and spoonfeed me my porridge and put up with my worsening dementia, they can have my stuff. I can't take it with me. I'd rather die relatively free under my own
deck, with folks around me that I cared for personally, than a nameless number on someone's list with all my paltry belongings going to feed Molech. Perhaps I might not linger so long in my own berth compared to the wards where I worked....but then my stuff goes to folks I know, and dying on the ward is awful. Seen enough. It is no way for a human to die.
As to a different kind of exit, drowned because I fell
overboard, or the ship broke, or some slob murders me for my titanium
CQR, or I choke on my
rum....whoopee, I'm just as dead as if I was in a car wreck or my cholesterol strangled me. In the meantime I enjoyed a thousand gorgeous sunsets in as many different places, had a whole lot of variety and challenges, and likely had more inclination and opportunity and ability to help folks, than if I were stuck in the rut like a slotcar to nowhere, like most. Now, I've tried talking to folks about this, most think I'm nutty. Most you, however,
know I'm nutty...and I'm probably preaching to the choir, anyway. Watch out, I know some of you by now....I'm in good company.
What is it that motivates the landlubber to frustrate a cruiser with groundless statements like the OP relates? Could it be that down deep they would like to have that kind of experience but are themselves trapped, and the rationalisations they (we all) come up with get spoken as a kind of shield and self-justification and excuse? Rather than despise them, I fear for them, take pity on them, and am grateful I'm somehow different (just need to be careful not to overexpose it or the big blokes with the butterfly nets and white coats will be looking for me.....they might stop me sailing!).
How does one escape the contagious landlubber herd-mindset? With great difficulty. It is portable. It comes naturally. It is reinforced and fed, over a lifetime. It's like luggage...you'll probably never get rid of it, but you can lock it in the
bilge and refuse to use it. Be on your guard, it can pick locks...