A
young man once had a dream of owning his own sailboat. He would daydream of
traveling around the world, visiting different ports along the way. Finally,
after years of hard work, and sacrifice, the man was able to buy a beautiful
boat. He was very proud of himself and his boat. He loved the attention he got
from newfound friends who all wanted rides. He kept the boat well maintained. In
fact, he took better care of it than himself. However, his friends didn't care about
that as long as they were able to sail freely with him and take advantage of
his generosity.
The years
passed and both he and boat began to weather with age. The boat wasn't as
seaworthy as it used to be and trying to keep it maintained was becoming difficult
for him to do. Both small and large tasks were overwhelming and extremely time
consuming, but he trusted no one else to work on it. The boat was now in
disrepair and no longer seaworthy, but he chose to sail one afternoon and this
time he sailed alone. He set sail and sailed for many days and finally he could
see the vague outline of his destination on the horizon. As he got closer, he
noticed his boat started to take on water. At first, it was just a little but
then the boat began taking on much more water and the situation became dangerous.
He was too far from the island to continue sailing and too attached to his boat
to let go of it and try to get to shore.
Even
though he had a life raft on board, being a dedicated captain, he felt there
was no option but to go down with his boat. After all, what would his friends
think? Abandoning his boat would be seen as a dishonor. He didn’t want to be
seen in that manner, so he never used the life boat and went down with the old
boat instead with no one around to acknowledge his sacrifice. He and the boat
disappeared beneath the waves. As for his fair-weather friends they never asked
of his whereabouts and went on with their lives and soon forgot about him. Choose friends who are true and not just interested in what they can get from you. It is better to travel alone than be in the company of fools.
