We [Y-O-U] Are Likely Better, Stronger, More Able Than You Think by Mark Hatmaker

Let us look to an excerpt from Robert Louis Stevenson’s An Inland Voyage, his journal from a lengthy canoe trip he embarked upon with a friend.

“It is a commonplace, that we cannot answer for ourselves before we have been tried. But it is not so common a reflection, and surely more consoling, that we usually find ourselves a great deal braver and better than we thought. I believe this is every one’s experience: but an apprehension that they may belie themselves in the future prevents mankind from trumpeting this cheerful sentiment abroad. I wish sincerely, for it would have saved me much trouble, there had been some one to put me in a good heart about life when I was younger; to tell me how dangers are most portentous on a distant sight; and how the good in a man’s spirit will not suffer itself to be overlaid, and rarely or never deserts him in the hour of need. But we are all for tootling on the sentimental flute in literature; and not a man among us will go to the head of the march to sound the heady drums.”

Let us breakdown this cheering thought to savor the wisdom.

“It is a commonplace, that we cannot answer for ourselves before we have been tried.”

·        Indeed, guessing at being brave, wise, good, capable, competent leaves us feeling a bit out of sorts. Often, we hope we are better than we assume we are, but this life of assumption even if we tout otherwise leaves us a bit unmoored within as life is experience not thought, and life as an experiment is the answer to most all.

We find this requirement for the act over fretful guessing echoed in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage.

“For days he made ceaseless calculations, but they were all wondrously unsatisfactory. He found that he could establish nothing. He finally concluded that the only way to prove himself was to go into the blaze, and figuratively to watch his legs to discover their merits and faults. He reluctantly admitted that he could not sit still and with a mental slate and pencil derive an answer. To gain it, he must have blaze, blood, and danger, even as a chemist requires this, that, and the other.”

·        We simply cannot assert our worth with statements, thoughts, posts, proclamations, we are living visible experiments that live and die by our deeds.

·        All else rings a bit false, hollow, insincere—not only to others but to ourselves.

A return to Stevenson…

“But it is not so common a reflection, and surely more consoling, that we usually find ourselves a great deal braver and better than we thought. I believe this is every one’s experience: but an apprehension that they may belie themselves in the future prevents mankind from trumpeting this cheerful sentiment abroad.”

·        I wager we can all point to calamities/adventures that we quaked before, but necessity required our participation and in the aftermath…we discovered we prevailed, or at least, were far better performers than we had given ourselves credit for.

·        Where we lacked, we were given practice. At the very least we endured and gathered wisdom.

·        Many of our worries or adventures we avoid or kick down the road, we do so because of this unwise doubt in ourselves.

·        Post-adventure we often side with Mark Twain’s observation…

“I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

Back to Stevenson…

“I wish sincerely, for it would have saved me much trouble, there had been some one to put me in a good heart about life when I was younger; to tell me how dangers are most portentous on a distant sight; and how the good in a man’s spirit will not suffer itself to be overlaid, and rarely or never deserts him in the hour of need. But we are all for tootling on the sentimental flute in literature; and not a man among us will go to the head of the march to sound the heady drums.”

·        Let us not forget, Stevenson practiced what he preached.

·        He was an inveterate traveler in days when travel was not mere itinerary.

·        Also recall that he was “sickly” from birth to death, he stood 5’ 10” and at his heaviest weighed no more than 130 pounds. By the time he made his arduous sail to the South Seas he weighed a mere 90 pounds, and yet… he went.

·        A lifelong lung ailment rendered him gasping for breath at times and yet… he went.

·        He DID in spite of hardships and maladies.

·        Or perhaps it is the perspective that a lifetime relationship with death provides, he went because of the maladies.

·        He did and dared because this one trip on the planet is all we get.

·        Whether or not we are as close to the precipice as Stevenson lived, we all are afflicted with the disease of mortality—we are lesser today than we were yesterday…but, that thought, that fact should not despair us, it should inspire us, spur us to move.

Let’s have a look at that last line…

“But we are all for tootling on the sentimental flute in literature; and not a man among us will go to the head of the march to sound the heady drums.”

·        Likely if you have read this far, Stevenson’s words and lesson resonate with you.

·        Hell, they resonate with all.

·        The world reads novels [graphic, genre and literary] of bold deeds and grand adventures.

·        We revel to screen hero-ship that tout such values.

·        We are of common nature in this regard; we recognize and choose to live vicariously with Heroes and Heroines.

·        It is only with the self that we become a bit chary.

·        We believe more in the fictional exploits than in ourselves.

·        Stevenson asks us to place that same excited rousing spirit that we thrill to in fiction [Treasure Island anyone?] but put it into our own lives.

Savage & Feral Homework

For the intrepid, who wish to move from words and thoughts to deeds. I offer the following…

·        Look at your own Bucket List, your own, “You know what I always wanted to do…” back pocket of the mind corner and say, “Yes” to it and do it.

·        If you say “Yes” and do it, post about it, “tootle” about it, let us hear the “heady drum” of your experiment.

·        If that seems too grand, let us at least commit to this…

·        Find the largest body of water in your locality—if you have a canoe or kayak—paddle it.

·        If no craft—swim in it.

·        Can’t swim? Wade in it.

·        Circumstances don’t permit immersion—float a paper boat.

·        The key and the point is, no matter where you are now, lifelong lung ailment, or lifelong dreamer GO!

·        While you’re at it, take someone with you.

Stevenson and I think we/you are all likely better than we/you think of ourselves.

May we experiment and surprise ourselves!

If you enjoy the Savage & Feral Journey, I am gratified!

If you’d like to support the effort that goes into presenting these signs from my own attempts at living my heady drum via the PayPal Donation Link, I’d be obliged. No one kicks at a free cuppa coffee.

Whatever your participation level, simply GO!

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