The Two Camps

Well since we have had the opportunity lately, thanks to the Holidays and the going away party tour, to visit with a lot of friends and family. It seems there are two diametrically opposed groups among our friends and family. First we have the ones say how could you do it? Why would otherwise sane people leave good jobs and successful businesses, a beautiful home and great friends to move to some island in the Caribbean. The other group are the ones that say how could you not? It is amusing at times to hear the different views. Our friends primarily consist of fellow boaters, but they are as diverse a group of people as you would ever want to meet from almost every walk of life. Because of that diversity and the fact that some are highly educated and well traveled and some are salt of the earth everyday people the views of the situation are all over the place. One of the almost universal views comes from some of our older friends. Most of them agree if you are going to do it then do it while you are young enough to enjoy it and take advantage of all it has to offer. It seems the friends that are in the how could you do it camp are the ones that for the most part are in a "comfort zone" in their lives. Some with kids, all with jobs and houses and long term plans.

Well my compass has always had a little more deviation in it than would normally be acceptable. This has served me well in life as I have never really colored between the lines like you are supposed to anyway. I guess this is a double edged sword as it makes you light on your feet but you always run the risk of being a little to far off course. Thankfully Deb's compass doesn't suffer from this so between the two of us we manage to make headway some where in the neighborhood of our heading despite ourselves.

As we have told most of our friends in the how could you do it camp, we have dreamed about it talked about and then planned for it. So now we are going to do it. I suspect if we had decided not to do it, and there have been plenty of opportunities to let this slide by, then when we are old a grey it would have been one of those huge regrets in life. If we do it and it works and we stay long term then our lives will be richer for the experience. If we do it and it doesn't stick long term then our lives will still be richer for the experience and I guess that's the best explanation that I can come up for the how could you do it camp. The other camp really doesn't need an explanation. For the ones that I can't convince with this explanation I simply show them a picture or two like the one above.

Jay