Crossing The First Threshold
July 7, 2007 (07/07/07)
Driving some 500 miles yesterday we saw weddings everywhere, at the Churches in Annapolis and in the backwoods of central Pennsylvania where Judy's family lives. When we returned home there was even a wedding reception in full swing next door. It seems many people saw 07/07/07 as an especially lucky day and wanted to have a wedding, if nothing else to make remembering future anniversaries easier.
For us this was a special day as well. We stepped on to a floating Makara for the first time. After an extended period on land during which she received a complex coating of paint on her bottom, Makara was put into the water earlier this week. Her hull got it's first drink of the waters of the Chesapeake which will be her home for a while.
Although we have made multiple trips to Makara while she was on land, and we were thrilled to begin to get to know her, there is something uncomfortable about a boat laid up on land. Sailboats move and respond constantly in response to your motion on them, and the lack of motion on land just doesn't feel right. Crossing from the dock to Makara for the first time, now that she is finally in her natural environment, was magical and it seems appropriate that this occured on the morning of 07/07/07.
Joseph Campell, the famous professor of comparative religion is the author of one of my favorite books: The Hero Of A Thousand Faces. In this book he discusses the common themes of the hero's journey. Campbell describes a stage called "Crossing The First Threshold", where early in the journey there is a key moment when the hero firmly steps beyond the bounds of normal society and onto a different path. Although these themes are age old examples can be found in popular culture. For example, in the "The Wizard Of Oz" Dorthy decidedly crosses the threshold when she steps out of the house whisked to Oz by the tornado, and the scene changes from black and white to color. "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore" voices her fear at crossing. Likewise in the Star Wars saga, when Luke Skywalker crosses into the bar with the jazz playing alien band, his path too is set and there is no turning back.
I recognized the signifcance of the moment when I stepped from the dock on to Makara for that first time and also crossed the first threshold on our journey. The moment took me instantly to the different values, pace and lifestyle one experiences on a boat. It crystalized that Makara is not some expensive toy, but a vessel capable of spiriting us off to exotic lands and adventure in the search for something that I still can not quite define.
One of the things we are still coming to grips with is the sense of scale of Makara. We spent so much time on our last boat, Perigail, that when we step on Makara we tend to think in terms of Perigail. As the drawing to the right shows (Perigail in Red, Makara in Blue) these are VERY different boats. Makara is some 12 feet longer than Perigail and 3 feet wider. While to those unfamiliar with boats this may not seem like a major difference, but consider that Makara's VOLUME is 2.5 times that of Perigail. In boat terms that is huge - like the difference between a 1000 sq foot apartment and a 2500 sq foot house. The picture of Makara below gives some sense of the scale of this vessel.
On the Hero's journey there is almost always some form of transport endowed with mythic qualities, whether it is Jason's Argo, Marlow's Nellie (Heart of Darkness) or Han Solo's Millineum Falcon. As we get to know Makara, she too is taking on the mythic qualities of these other vessels and we can't wait to see where she will take us