Journeys

Two stories this week inspired me to think about amazing and difficult journeys. Firstly Ellen Macarthur's round the world voyage was just amazing. It is said that she only slept for fifteen minutes at a time. The self discipline and focus she employed was remarkable.

Robin Knox-Johnston on Ellen Macarthur "Single-handed sailing is in the mind. The size of a person is really very, very secondary. You need a mind that can focus, someone who can be happy on their own, dealing with things on their own, and is incredibly self-disciplined,"

And news just in: Alleged message to yatchswoman Ellen McArthur's sponsor B&Q from a customer "my congratulations to you on getting a yacht to leave the UK on 28th Nov 2004, sail 27,354 miles around the world and arrive back 72 days later.. Could you please let me know when the kitchen I ordered 96 days ago will be arriving from your warehouse 13 miles away?

The other story of self discipline and endurance is that of BBC writer Ivan Noble. Ivan wrote web-log of his fight with cancer. On average 90,000 people read Noble's online diary each week, with 396,948 people reading his final column.

What struck me as hopeful about his story was what he set out to beat the cancer and in spite of his inevitable death he felt he had succeeded, "What I wanted to do with this column was try to prove that it was possible to survive and beat cancer and not to be crushed by it. Even though I have to take my leave now, I feel like I managed it".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4211475.stm