To be a Wind Whisperer

Yesterday, my pastor was speaking about recovery and perseverance and as an example he mentioned that a competition sailor has to read the wind and the currents.

He or she has to be what people are calling, Australian Laser Class yachtsman and Olympic gold medalist,  Tom Slingsby – a Wind Whisperer.

A bit before and a lot after
I'm not bad at reading the wind. I am quite proficient at reading what it has just done but only sometimes I read what it is about to do.  That's all very 'trendy' so to speak, but I confess to not being very good at taking advantage of what I've predicted will happen.

Some people are really good at it. 

Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) was brilliant at it – probably the best there has ever been. He read the closing of the silk road by the Caliph in Istanbul, the rising of European nation states, the victory of the Spanish over the Moors and the birth of a new era of European power, the improvement in square-rig ship building, the development of large-span canvas sails, the maps of John the Navigator, the invention of the astrolobe, the stories of sailors venturing further into the Atlantic on newly charted currents. Amazingly he didn't just read one breeze. He read the whole lot. Putting them all together, he seized the the day and began the Golden Age of Discovery. Admittedly it took him 28 years to put it all together but I think clocks ran slower in those days.

Question:
Would you have been able to read those winds? 

Answer: 
It doesn't matter now. It's been done some 520 years. What matters today is whether you can read the wind that is coming your way – or not coming your way. It's a bit like predciting the future but not the slightest bit as spooky. Actually it's more about prediciting what you will do about the wind once you've observed it's likely behaviour. That makes a gold medal winning sailor.

Have you been able to read the developments of the last 50 years. 

How about some from the last 5 years?

The emergence of China in everything

The emergence of India in technology

The smartphone

The tablet

The fragility of the world economy

The fractures in the EU

The unravelling of the human genome

The Arab ‘Spring’

The rise of the Green Movement

The dragged out wars against terrorism in primitive countries

Does it matter?

No? Hunker down. Wait to go on the pension and hope not to take a long time to die. (Mind you, you are pretty much dead now with an attitude like that)

Yes? Of course it matters. You might be the Christopher Columbus they'll be writing about in 520 years from now – or your kids could be, or your grandies, or the people you meet and influence. 

Anyway, to infinity and beyond.

Live long and prosper.