The Season For Admitting Ignorance

Apparently, it's the season for admitting ignorance here on the Quirky Muffin. I had no idea that Darwin's voyage the Beagle lasted five years! He went away from his home, and wrote that journal book, for years and was part of a circumnavigation of the whole world. For comparison, I get worried when I'm out for a whole day! What wonders he saw, and what ideas he conceived and then articulated in later texts...

When I finally finish reading it, I'll write a little about 'The Voyage Of The Beagle'. It's a fascinating snapshot into the geography and natural science of the Southern Hemisphere in the 1840s, and even relates a little of the local socio-political structures of the time. However, for now, I will just boggle at the idea of a five year trip around the world. Five years without British rain! Yikes!

Fascinatingly, the Beagle went on three separate surveying expeditions, and now they seem very much like the kind of 'five year missions' we saw on 'Star Trek'. Yes, those people, and their paying passengers like Darwin, committed for the long haul. Can you imagine that kind of trip, on a tiny sloop? It's true that Darwin spent long periods of time on land, rendezvousing with the vessel at fixed times and places, but it's a monumental achievement for the sailors and the ship as much as for him. A literal real world five year mission of surveying and charting. How wonderful.

If our progress has been marked on a timeline of exploration, then does that explain the weirdness of the last century, as infighting continues to erupt in the human species. Without a clear path of exploration, or at least one that anyone will pay for, is the sheer irrationality connected to spending far too much time under one global roof instead of being out on the great unexplored plains, breaking trails to new undiscovered countries? Do we need to make 'Wagon Train To The Stars' a reality out there before we can he happy back here?

Oh, to have been on that ship, or another like her. It would have been quite the experience, especially after dumping the phone in the trash at the first opportunity.

O.