don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Are you a "mature" person, getting up in years, thinking about retiring from the rat-race? After decades of faithful service as a loyal worker and family person, does it feel as if something is missing? Perhaps you are uncomfortable about not having resolved life's great questions ("What's it all about?", for example) or whether you have made a sufficient impact on the world. Maybe you feel you have not had enough adventure? In short, for whatever reasons, maybe you want to undertake something radically new and different. Maybe, just maybe, you are thinking of a life-changing adventure that others would fear dreaming about, let alone undertaking. Could this be your situation?

If so, you might enjoy reading my friend Rod Lees little book entitled This Should Just Be A Breeze: A Sailing Story. If not, that is, if you are like me and think a journey on a small boat from Australia to Austria sounds demented and insane, you might really enjoy reading about someone who attempts such a foolhardy voyage, after a long career as a responsible landlubber.

On the other hand, maybe it is a very good thing to take leave of your comfort zone in life.  What do you think? I'd guess that it almost surely is a good thing, other things being the same, which they never are.

The trick is to find a Goldilocks way to do it, that is, not to stray too far or stay too close from that mysterious comfort zone but to wander just the right distance from it. Breeze is Rod's Homer-worthy story. It is a diary-like account of how a mild-mannered Clark Kent-like Aussie bureaucrat came to envision an unlikely but heroic goal, make plans to bring it off, learn skills needed to survive, work hard to deal with the unexpected, deal with crises, adapt to unforeseen hazards, take fearsome risks and, in the end, do less and more than he thought would be necessary.

Rod Lees, a physical educator, is a modern day Greek mythic hero in the Odysseus mold, regarded for his brain as well as his muscle. Possessed of an inquisitive mind, he also is a man of prowess and bravery. Yet, for decades, he passed his days quietly and unceremoniously in Brisbane, Australia, little noticed by the outside world, except perhaps when a tourist from America might hear him utter a phrase like "gob-smacked." However, for the most part, Rod was not recognized near or far as a powerful mythic hero.

Well, readers of Breeze will discover an Odysseus-worthy hero setting brave courses. He often hesitates, he uses his reason and gifts, he shows patience, he defers to his woman but he reveals himself as a great leader when disasters loom.

Like the mythic hero he emulates, our Aussie Odysseus has weaknesses (pride, for instance --after all, he IS a guy) and sometimes causes metaphorical giant boulders to be hurled by the gods in the direction of his little cruiser. Yet, the fun of the read is noting how Rod's impertinencies make his travel ever so longer and arduous.

I wish that the writer had not modestly underplayed his sensuousness. The reader can intuit how much he, like Odysseus enjoys his women but all we discover in Breeze is his devotion to a single hot babe. Perhaps writing with a blockbuster family-oriented movie deal in mind, the steamier aspects of life aboard a very small boat in the middle of a very large sea are barely noted. No doubt his Circe (Karyn) deserves some credit for Rod's successful heroic quest, but this reader came away with the sense that his exploits were understated in the interest of domestic bliss.

To learn more about this gripping true-life adventure tale of a heroic wellness quest, write the author for information about This Should Just Be A Breeze: A Sailing Story. (Rod Lees at rod.lees@det.qld.gov.au)

The bottom line -- Rod managed to realize his quest by looking on the bright side of life. Today, he is a lot wealthier in the larger sense and only slightly poorer in the fiscal sense for having dared an epic and triumphant experience.

Be well.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of adaptations and challenges. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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