YOU NEED A METAPHORICAL YACHT

or How To Blur Out The Problems And Dream Of Even Better

We went to a yacht party yesterday.

Does that sound a little pretentious?
Yes.

Does it also sound awesome?
Also yes.

We were invited guests to a celebration of a friend’s recently attained career milestone.
The celebration was aboard a yacht that took all 30 of us out from downtown Toronto and around the Toronto Islands.

It afforded us a view of Toronto that I had only seen in photos before.
It was a children’s storybook version of Toronto.
Planes coming and going.
Sailboats. The CN Tower. The Skydome. Glittering lights.
Everything you wanted Toronto to be was in your field of view.

It was glorious and beautiful.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see similar storybook views of Vancouver and New York City.
Those view you only get when you step back a bit… or a lot.
The details stay crisp but all the bad stuff and all the problems disappear.

I think it’s important to get a chance to see things from a distance.
Not just cities but our own lives.
We can get mired in the details and minutiae and problems of everyday life.
That makes it too easy to forget the wonderful bits.

I’m not exactly sure how one charters a metaphorical yacht to get a better view of their own life but surely there are ways to do so.
A day off.
Sitting in a park.
Quietly looking out a window.

Whatever you need to do to get that storybook view of your life, you should do it.
It’s only when we can see the good, the beauty, and the promise from a literal or figurative distance that we can get inspired to make things even better.

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(Pictured: Author does his best Thurston Howell III and then spends rest of the night explaining to people much younger than him who that is)