Behan posted a really great essay on sorting out wants and needs. She warns of the distinct possibility that failure to recognize the difference may mean that one never even gets off the dock. It's a great reminder.
I'd go a step further and say that some who know it full well nevertheless embrace failure to recognize that difference as a strategy in an unacknowledged campaign of sabotage against their own stated desires to accomplish any number of goals, including becoming long-term cruisers. They may say that they wish to cut the dock lines and sail for the horizon, but they are secretly terrified to do it, and so they unthinkingly throw up barriers in the form of insurmountably long lists of nice-to-haves deliberately misidentified as critical equipment or crucial to-dos.
Anyway...
April, Paul and I took the girls rafting on the Colorado River today. We did some light Class III rapids, according to our guide. The girls loved it.
I jumped off a 30-foot rock into the river which was a cool thing for me. It was one of those great moments when all you want to do is back out of something, but you step over the edge, literally in this case, and come out victorious over that inner voice of fear.
Finally, we learned about some of the causes of sudden illness in first aid tonight.
