In my professional career I travelled extensively, worked in constantly forming and re-forming team structures, and lived a generally fast-paced lifestyle. “It’s a small world,” was a frequent aphorism that my colleagues and I would use when we made a professional acquaintance and then discovered that person had a connection to a close friend or common former-employer. It happened all the time. Similarly, given the lifestyle, when reminiscing over a meal we’d often comment about how “time flies”. Over the past several months, I’ve thought about those two statements a lot and how they are not expressions of fact but reflections of how we choose to live. When you’re flying at 500+ MPH yes, it’s a small world. When you’re sailing at 5 knots (about 6 MPH), the world isn’t so small. When the sun sets at 5:30 PM local time on a winter’s day and it won’t rise again until 7:00 AM the next morning and you’re standing watch the better part of the night, time isn’t flying. Given where I’ve been and where I am, in this next chapter I want to earn my travel, earn my distance and earn my adventure.
Dan, this is beautifully written. As I read it, I saw myself in those conversations. May we each be mindful of earning our time, distance and adventures. Thank you.
Lovely musings!
Thanks Frank.