By Richard Tarbill
A common question we get here at OAR Northwest is, “why?”
I’ve tried explaining this in many different ways. So has Adam, Jordan, and Greg. I find it incredibly difficult to clearly articulate why this challenge we are undertaking, rowing from Liberia to Venezuela, is awesome. The words “crazy” and “nuts” were uttered all the time at the @SeattleBoatShow.
Recently when I was down in California testing on the 747-8F, a small Beachcraft Baron two engine airplane crashed off the runway, passing right in front of us, we being located somewhere on the taxi or hold short area. Being in the back of the big tube of an airplane, I could only hear over the “hot-mike” what was happening real-time from what the pilots were saying. The assumption we had was that the occupants were most likely dead on impact.
Here is the LA Times article and a KTLA news video. Luckily these two folks are recovering.
The reason I bring up this little incident is that a few minutes after that moment, we went about our business, took off, and began to test, but the realization of that incident was that life is, well, fleeting. Sometimes it seems that no matter how hard you try, the daily minutia tends to eventually take precedence over the most important things in life. And it’s quite disgusting that it usually takes tragic, or “cataclysmic” events, to help re-focus on what is most important. You need to remain vigilant in guiding your boat down the river, or else you risk loosing yourself in the eddies of life (I didn’t try to rip that off from someone :)).
This idea goes a long way to help answering “why” we are rowing across the ocean, connecting communities, and raising awareness for Right To Play. People might find it absurd, but I find it radical. The adventure continually will put us in uncomfortable situations. How will our interactions with completely different cultures turn out? Will four strong type-A personalities be able to co-exist if everything starts to fall apart out in the middle of Nowhere, Atlantic? It will force us to focus and reflect on what is most important in life, rather than settling for the familiar, and comfortable.
I feel like a bit of a melodramatic putz for saying this, but a pretty good quote I read from @jamesfranco in the magazine Outside about the movie 127 Hours states, “…[I]t’s a human coming face to face with self, with his mortality, with his beliefs, and with the way he has lived his life.”
Does anyone else relate to this? Or not?
By the way, being the responsible ocean rowers we are, we’re in the midst of putting together contacts and information about travel to Liberia and Venezuela. Has anyone else traveled to these places before? We would love to hear from you. There is a slew of information available on the interwebs, but we would like to confer with others who have had first hand experience.