Yesterday when I turned on my computer, up popped one of those little notes that told me I had bugger all hard drive space and to get with the program pronto and either dump some needless stuff or get a bigger drive... The thing is, I thought I had a bigger drive. I actually remember when buying this computer that I thought it would be impossible to ever fill up a 120 GB drive!
Younger readers might not understand, but when I bought my first computer it did not even have a hard drive or that down the line when I did get a computer with a hard drive that the hard drive was a whopping 125 MB (we are talking serious state of the art at the time) so the idea of filling up a 120 GB drive actually seemed like a task of Herculean proportions...
Apparently not so hard when you have a raging interest in new music, boat designs and like-minded political thought... a MB here and a MB there actually adds up rather quickly to a whole bunch of Gigabytes!
The solution is simple. All I have to do is add a new and bigger drive which costs hardly anything and, this is where the hope comes in, as every once in a while I find myself up-close-and-personal with real progress and that is no bad thing!
Progress is GOOD and don't let anybody tell you different. Right now I'm sure you are thinking "and exactly what does this have to do with boats"?
Well, point of fact, quite a bit. Boats and boat stuff should be getting better and we, the folks driving the boats, should be getting better at what we do as well. In fact, if there is any one group that should be dubbed with the term "progressive", it is cruising sailors who apparently unknowingly are blazing a path to how the world can live well with less...
Think about it for a moment... Even the most energy-inefficient, power-guzzling, cruising boat has a carbon footprint considered impossible by those currently making energy policy decisions in Washington. Over and over we hear that using less is impossible and living within the means of our planet is just not going to happen, but we do it day in and day out. Solar and wind generation have long since become commonplace in the cruising fleet, while in Washington they keep telling us the same old same regressive party line "it's not ready yet, too expensive and we need a breakthrough".
Progress is not about waiting for a breakthroughs or saying we're not ready. Progress is about moving ahead and whether it is better energy generation or sailboat design we should be all over it and complacent is not a word that should even be in our vocabulary.
Progress is good...
(say it loud and say it proud)
