Chief Bones
Forums Grumpy Old Man
What made and continues to make men go ‘a-journeying’ and ‘into harms way‘ ???
What brought the caveman out of his cave and attack the Wooly Mammoth and Saber-toothed Tiger with nothing but a stone ax and stone tipped spear … Why did men go down to the sea in their little thin skinned bullboats … Why did the original explorers venture out on a sea when they ‘just know’ ‘there be beasties and dragons’ and the world is flat … Why did men like Columbus venture into an unknown sea in search of fame, fortune and adventure when they knew it would be years before they returned home (if ever) … Why did our forefathers cross the sea to America, and then venture into the unknown of a ’black’ and wild interior … What enticed the first mountain men to live in a dangerous, unexplored and very dangerous land away from all civilization and under conditions that killed and crippled so many men … What ever possessed the first astronaut to climb on top of a ‘bomb’, and blast off the earth to circle our planet in a little eggshell capsule (that they had no control over) … Where did the necessary backbone come from, when man took his first steps on the moon ……………
When we take our next steps to the stars, where will the bravery, fortitude, and sense of adventure that will be all important come from? ………..
This excerpt by Rudyard Kipling explains part of it:
“We have fed our seas for a thousand years
. . . . And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there’s never a wave of all her waves
. . . . But marks our English dead:
We have strawed our best to the weed’s unrest,
. . . . To the shark and the sheering gull.
If blood be the price of admiralty,
. . . . Lord God, we ha’ paid in full“.
HOWEVER, the following says it all:
“For that is our doom and our pride”.
The reason it won't be for nothing……,
It’ll be because they are men.
What do you think … did Rudyard Kipling get it right?
Was it because of doom and pride that so much has been done and so much will be done in the future?
What brought the caveman out of his cave and attack the Wooly Mammoth and Saber-toothed Tiger with nothing but a stone ax and stone tipped spear … Why did men go down to the sea in their little thin skinned bullboats … Why did the original explorers venture out on a sea when they ‘just know’ ‘there be beasties and dragons’ and the world is flat … Why did men like Columbus venture into an unknown sea in search of fame, fortune and adventure when they knew it would be years before they returned home (if ever) … Why did our forefathers cross the sea to America, and then venture into the unknown of a ’black’ and wild interior … What enticed the first mountain men to live in a dangerous, unexplored and very dangerous land away from all civilization and under conditions that killed and crippled so many men … What ever possessed the first astronaut to climb on top of a ‘bomb’, and blast off the earth to circle our planet in a little eggshell capsule (that they had no control over) … Where did the necessary backbone come from, when man took his first steps on the moon ……………
When we take our next steps to the stars, where will the bravery, fortitude, and sense of adventure that will be all important come from? ………..
This excerpt by Rudyard Kipling explains part of it:
“We have fed our seas for a thousand years
. . . . And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there’s never a wave of all her waves
. . . . But marks our English dead:
We have strawed our best to the weed’s unrest,
. . . . To the shark and the sheering gull.
If blood be the price of admiralty,
. . . . Lord God, we ha’ paid in full“.
HOWEVER, the following says it all:
“For that is our doom and our pride”.
The reason it won't be for nothing……,
It’ll be because they are men.
What do you think … did Rudyard Kipling get it right?
Was it because of doom and pride that so much has been done and so much will be done in the future?
