David Whyte tells another story from his Galapagos adventure… one night on the expedition ship they were moored in a cove in a storm … everyone was asleep when David woke up sensing a different motion of the ship and got up to investigate… what he found is that the ship was adrift blowing fast toward the rocky cliffs a few hundred yards away … he woke people up, the crew jumped to their stations, started the engine and managed to get the ship underway just 100 yards from the cliffs…
Whyte was incensed… where was the captain, the one they had entrusted their lives to … and who almost got them killed.
Some years later, he recounted this story to a Navy Captain looking for validation… and the Navy Captain responded sternly, “What I want to know is, where was the crew?” Ultimately, the safety of the vessel is every crew member’s responsibility, not just the captain’s.
That leaves me wondering what level of engagement actually existed on that ship that fateful night in the Galapagos… they all almost paid the ultimate price… kind of makes you think!
Engagement is not optional – we’re in times where things are changing and moving not back to where they were, but forward to a new normal… the old ways are less relevant and the new ways unclear. The way to navigate this uncertainty, this fog, is through engagement…
