There once was a town on the shore of a small harbor. Outside the harbor jetty were tremendous waves, but beyond the harbor entrance the sea was calm all the way to the distant islands on the horizon.
The townspeople wanted to explore those islands, and at one time they sent small, fast boats out past the waves to one of the islands, and discovered many great things. Amazingly, it only took them ten years of research to reach that distant island.
The waves were a problem though. Once they got past the waves, they could go anywhere they wanted, but coming back through the waves destroyed the boats. So the town's leaders decided that if they just built a fleet of large ships, they could go out and back through the waves many times easily. So the town used up all of their money to build these wonderful large boats.
The problem was, once past the waves...that was as far as the boat could go! It would motor around for a while, staying close to the entrance, then come back through the waves. It was a wonderful boat, to be sure, but the huge cost of building and sailing her left almost no money to build anything else! The large boat sailed for nearly 35 years, and never went anywhere. It just went outside the harbor and then back.
Over time, the concept of going to those far islands soon faded from everyone's mind because they had convinced themselves that this was "exploration", when they actually explored nothing more then the harbor entrance.
Occasionally the large ship would sink, and the townspeople would grieve for the loss of the crew. Sadly though, they were so blinded by large boat's wonderful technology, and so forgetful of what true exploration is, that they could think of nothing better then building another boat to sail around the harbor entrance. After all, it was all they knew how to do!
The distant islands were still there, filled with wondrous treasure, but the townspeople couldn't see them anymore, because the large boat was in the way.
It was sad, you know.....
If they had only lifted their eyes a little bit higher, the could have seen past the large boats to the islands beyond. They would have seen the treasure sparkling in the distance. They might have remembered what exploration really means. They might have populated those bright specks, they might have lived in heaven.
Slashdot Mirror
There once was a town on the shore of a small harbor. Outside the harbor jetty were tremendous waves, but beyond the harbor entrance the sea was calm all the way to the distant islands on the horizon.
The townspeople wanted to explore those islands, and at one time they sent small, fast boats out past the waves to one of the islands, and discovered many great things. Amazingly, it only took them ten years of research to reach that distant island.
The waves were a problem though. Once they got past the waves, they could go anywhere they wanted, but coming back through the waves destroyed the boats. So the town's leaders decided that if they just built a fleet of large ships, they could go out and back through the waves many times easily. So the town used up all of their money to build these wonderful large boats.
The problem was, once past the waves...that was as far as the boat could go! It would motor around for a while, staying close to the entrance, then come back through the waves. It was a wonderful boat, to be sure, but the huge cost of building and sailing her left almost no money to build anything else! The large boat sailed for nearly 35 years, and never went anywhere. It just went outside the harbor and then back.
Over time, the concept of going to those far islands soon faded from everyone's mind because they had convinced themselves that this was "exploration", when they actually explored nothing more then the harbor entrance.
Occasionally the large ship would sink, and the townspeople would grieve for the loss of the crew. Sadly though, they were so blinded by large boat's wonderful technology, and so forgetful of what true exploration is, that they could think of nothing better then building another boat to sail around the harbor entrance. After all, it was all they knew how to do!
The distant islands were still there, filled with wondrous treasure, but the townspeople couldn't see them anymore, because the large boat was in the way.
It was sad, you know.....
If they had only lifted their eyes a little bit higher, the could have seen past the large boats to the islands beyond. They would have seen the treasure sparkling in the distance. They might have remembered what exploration really means. They might have populated those bright specks, they might have lived in heaven.