tales for dreamers: a captain's dilemma near the seashore

The shore is in sight but the Captain is a tad reluctant to dock his vessel.

It often happens, this reluctance to step off his ship and jump on to the shore, especially after a long voyage of several weeks and months spent looking for that very shore in the first place.

It used to confuse his crew at first, but not anymore. They are used to seeing their Captain caught in the throes of such dilemmas. It is an innate part of him, they have come to see. It is the way he must grapple with the contradictions of life.

He laments that to set foot on land, he must leave the waters behind. It is like leaving a part of him behind, like a limb, or his heart. They know better than to reason with him, for logic and feelings belong to entirely different realms that share no boundary whatsoever.

But he doesn’t impose his quandary on them, and for that alone they are grateful. They hop into the lifeboats and make their way to the shore, leaving the Captain alone aboard the ship to decide when he’d be ready to dock.

They wish they could do something to make him see sense, but with time they too have learnt that this is something the Captain must tackle by himself. This shift from longing to finding, from seeking to seeing.

As much as they’d love to, they know they can’t accompany him on all his journeys, especially not the ones he has to undertake by himself, for himself.

No matter how well he steers his ship, sooner or later the voyage must come to an end. Only then can a new one begin.