The SV Good Love is also ultimately intended to be the name of our catamaran, the one pictured in the profile art created by my wife Rachael and on display here and on the SV GoodLove's Facebook page, and here below:
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| Rachael's evolving rendition of the S/V Good Love |
Right now it's just an idea; a drawing; a vision; a name. This is how it came about...
In Beginning the Good Love Adventure, we wrote about how we accidentally stumbled across numerous folks who had embarked upon journeys to remove themselves from the culture, grip and "grid" that American society seems to have on it's citizenry. The pursuit of career, status, money and more, bigger and better stuff than your neighbors seems to be a way of life on Main Street, and the attraction of this phenomenon is embraced by so many of us here. It's no wonder - think about it... The United States of America is the most prosperous country on Earth in it's entire history, at least in terms of material and commercial wealth. The USA was established on freedom and justice for all, and the Judeo Christian values that the founding fathers etched into our nation's underpinnings, providing it's citizenry with the opportunity to work to improve themselves to the maximum of their potentials and the desires and motivations of their hearts. No other country has done so much in such a time as to provide that for it's people, and, despite the issues and challenges that face many people here in America, think about the difficulties faces by citizens of some other countries face in merely trying to get by every day. Our involvement in our energetic career-oriented culture with its bent towards upward mobility and accumulation of material wealth seems to contradict what sharing the Good Love is all about. What if we were able to share this Good Love with people elsewhere? What if we could divest ourselves of the the very things that were preventing us from doing so because those things placed so many demands on our time and resources that it became nearly impossible to breathe and share the message? What if we could do it another way - a simpler way?
We began to consider what it would take to make such a future happen. After reading and researching many of the blogs, websites, and videos of former career-oriented folks turned cruisers, it became apparent that divestment would include parting with many of the creature comforts we were brought up to believe that we would need to maintain a comfortable life: Career jobs, a nice home, cars, material furnishings, up-mobile friends and all of the ancillary related items. Divestment for many cruisers meant selling everything off, resigning from their jobs, learning to sail, then taking the money they had left and purchasing a boat, outfitting it, and heading off into the sunset. Sounds romantic, doesn't it!
It does to us as well. However, we struggled with the question of whether this is the right thing to do. Whom are we serving the "Good Love" to by doing this? I've read a lot of folks stories about their desire to escape the cultural ties and live a simpler life - a worthy pursuit to be sure. Living "greener", leaving a smaller "eco-footprint" for future generations, etc... are all great reasons to try something different. We'd researched the Tiny House Movement, whose participants believe in a land-based smaller way of life. Very intriguing and worthy of attention, as it embraces the idea that living with less is significantly more fulfilling than living with more beneath the burdens of how to afford it.
For us, we needed confirmation that this was a venture we should spend time and effort pursuing. We'd been strongly focusing our attention on the idea that we could actually learn how to sail and cruise the Caribbean as a nearest to North America practice ground, which could eventually lead us off to further destinations. I was familiar with some of the Caribbean islands (having been a Geography teacher and all...). On one of our endless rabbit-trail-like research forays into those who had already adopted the cruising lifestyle, we ran across a video from a YouTuber named "goinguptoheaven89", on board the S/V Vamanos1 in the Caribbean. Hello? Going Up To Heaven? Hmmm... wonder how we landed at this particular YouTube video...
Well, the first song of the video caught my attention. It is a song by Jason Castro titled Good Love, and as I watched this video...
...I was moved as the song struck a strong spiritual chord within me. I was driving home at that time, and as I was listening to the song, I pulled up behind this propane delivery truck...
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| "St. Thomas" as a confirmation |
Look closely... The truck's home base is at a fuel cooperative in a small Minnesota town named St. Thomas. In case you are not aware, St. Thomas is also a very well known destination for cruisers in the U.S VIrgin Islands...in the Caribbean. Hearing the song, feeling the emotion and pulling up, all at that moment at the same time and the same place are no coincidence. I believe there are no coincidences in life, only opportunities to take in what is being communicated to you. We could write a book (and maybe we should) about this topic and our experiences. I used to not think that way, and I feel I missed some very important opportunities and communications. In any case, the convergence of the spirited emotion, the song Good Love and pulling up behind a truck with "St. Thomas" on the back of it stood as an affirmative confirmation that we were not only going to undertake a sailing adventure but also clarified at least one direction that we would be headed. God truly works in mysterious ways, and the trick is to be in prayer to be able to recognize then he is speaking to you!
We talked about these events and came to the conclusion that our future catamaran should obviously be named... Good Love. We hope to spread it as we are called her and wherever we may travel in the future!
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