I’ve been reading the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series, of the _Master and Commander Far Side of the World_ movie fame. I can truthfully say I like the movie. Though the story in the film has an incindental if not tangential relationship to the texts it purports to be translated from. But the actual novel, Far Side of the World, 10th in the series, has one great line I’ve been mulling over for the last week or so, “Jack liked others and expected to be liked in return.” This speaks to a virtue in character I hope I possess. Whether or not that virtue is returned in kind is another matter. This line while trivial, speaks to me in particular.
Jack Aubrey in the novels is an indomitably cheerful man. Despite hordes of personal setbacks, troves of financial difficulties and the general stress of being in command of a Frigate during time of war; he generally is kind and good natured and very difficult to discourage.
Granted Jack can be dimwitted on land, but in his own habitat he is very capable, and often very successful. I wonder if in my own small way, I am the same as Jack, a blundering buffoon on land, ready to shoot himself socially, fiscally, and politically in the foot at any given opportunity. But with wind in his rigging, and blue sea underneath him, there is no one who can stop him.
I hope to find plenty of blue water soon and to hear the hum of the wind in the rigging.