In case you missed it, yesterday was "Kon Tiki" day....
If you aren't savvy to Tiki, it's the 101 day expedition by a Norweigan explorer in 1947 who decided to build a balsa log raft and see if it would be possible to sail across the Pacific Ocean to South America. Just to see if he could...
Now the deeper story here is Kon Tiki is a bit of a talisman thought to me. Just hearing the words takes me back to being 12 years old again.
As a kid, my dad thought my education would never be complete unless I read the book Kon Tiki. For him, it was pivotal, it was a man triumps over nature story. It was a guy who was rugged tough and with cowboy like gusto, went for his dream, no matter how far out. As a 12 year old, I thought they were just a bunch of numbskulls.
Who in their right mind is going to build some raft out of a bunch of trees and sail half way around the world just for fun? Turning the pages made my teeth grind and want to shout "what were they thinking?" Even at age 12, I had some sense.
But my dad kept on pressing. "Read it, it's good, it's essential, you need to know the story.." And so I plugged on, that whole summer, resenting every moment, reading that felt like trudging through mud, desperately wanting to get through it.
Now as an adult, I get it. I get it because as a grown up and a parent, a lot of my days feel like you are constantly living on that ridiculous raft. Life is a lot of trudging through, braving the storms, doing things that don't make sense, embarking on the unknown and barely hanging on.
The gift of Kon Tiki is that everyone has one. Everyone has that crazy, no good sense dream lurking inside of them. The one that everyone around you will scream "idiot" and with only your voice quietly whispering, yes. My dad wanted me to see the possibilities of Kon Tiki.
Yesterday was the anniversary of their launch. And that is a day worth remembering...
If you want to learn more about Kon Tiki, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki
No comments:
Post a Comment