I was sharing my favorite quote with my cousin the other day and Jen said I should add it to the blog. The quote is from Sterling Hayden’s autobiography, Wanderer, and I first read it when I was 15 years old. It was framed and hanging on the bulkhead (a.k.a. the wall, for all you landlubbers) in the head (a.k.a. the bathroom) on board the tall ship CALIFORNIAN. Needless to say, it had a profound affect on my young adult brain which has stayed with me to this day.

For those not familiar with him, Sterling Hayden is most notable for being a Hollywood actor in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Though he would probably to be remembered as a sailor, most will recognize him as the actor who played Brig. General Ripper, the crazy Air Force general in Stanley Kubrik’s Dr. Strangelove. Though Sterling’s real life may not necessarily be one that you would want to emulate, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still some truth in his words:

“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea – ‘cruising,’ it is called. Voyaging belongs to the seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about…

‘I’ve always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can’t afford it.’ What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of ‘security.’ And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine – and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need – really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all – in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”

• from: Wanderer, by Sterling Hayden – chapter 5