Over the Edge of Doubt

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Anyone remember this ditty my teacher taught us to introduce explorers of the New World?

When my youngest daughter was the same age, she crafted a two-foot papier mâché Christopher Columbus for a class project. Her father helped her make a metal skeleton that stood up, and I took her to the fabric store where she selected silky material to fashion red and gold striped bloomers, a red renaissance jacket, and a golden cap. Hands deep in newspaper glop, she carefully formed his body, and when he hardened, painted his face.

Christopher’s expression came out as surprised as she was that she couldn’t dress him. His outstretched arms didn’t bend, and his feet were sunk in a solid chunk of wood. So, she slit his jacket between his bumpy shoulder blades and sewed it back up after sliding on each sleeve. Of course, she also had to split his shorts and stitch them back on one leg at a time. She stuck a found turkey feather in his golden cap, and he was magnificent. But after his glorious moment in her fifth-grade class, poor Chris stood in the corner of our basement for a decade, staring at spider webs, until we moved and threw his silken splendor in the trash.

A few years back, I watched a documentary about Laura Dekker, a fourteen-year-old determined to sail solo around the world. Courts in the Netherlands tried to prevent her voyage, arguing her goal insane and unsafe. As looney as Columbus sailing off the edge of a planet shaped like a pancake?  Despite official discouragement, Laura completed her voyage at sixteen, setting a record as the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe alone. Soon after her accomplishment, she set sail again, most content at sea. 

Most content at sea. Aren’t we all? The wind at our back, bucking the waves of adventure? No one wants to be at anchor, staring rigidly at the cobwebs of their lives.

I’m sure Columbus had no idea how his discoveries would contribute to the rise and fall of many in the New World. Times have changed, and for some, Christopher’s glory has turned to infamy. Can any of us predict how our lives and work will influence others?   

And so, it is still a brave thing to set sail daily with childlike hope, over the edge of doubt, ignoring the approval or disapproval of men, to follow the trade winds of our divine destiny.

Nowadays, I weigh anchor from my desk, writing stories I hope someone will discover and enjoy.  Maybe it’s insane. Certainly, unsafe. But God gives each of us a set of sails, and there’s a new world ahead.