A reading of my article – Rocking The Boat

(c) K Wicks

Another of those classic sayings, in its varying forms. But the main one being ‘don’t rock the boat, especially if you are in it’, which most are probably familiar with. And if you have ever been one of those people who have indeed rocked the boat, what happens thereafter may have given you a different view of the saying. Because once you have rocked that boat, you begin to see who benefits from that boat staying steady and stable, and being told not to rock it insinuating that you are a problem that will disrupt the smooth sailing of life and that steady heading.

But we aren’t all going the same way or with the same purpose, and you may end up finding yourself in the same vessel as someone else anyway, and when it isn’t working, it seems wholly appropriate to rock the boat, or just jump out of it altogether. They have another little saying too to help hold people back and imagine how bad it will be ‘out of the frying pan, and into the fire’. At first they seem like useful sayings, to give you wisdom and understanding of situations, but as with much they then can get used as a tool by some to give hesitancy to people or to interrupt their thoughts and ideas, with ‘words of advice’.

And that’s where you realise that life is like a boat for this analogy, for each of us, and sometimes you step into or you get pulled into someone else’s boat because they need the ballast, or company, or have a use for you that you aren’t aware of yet, and they need you to stay in their boat. So, will do what it takes to make sure you stay in there, telling you there are sharks, no land, only that boat, no other routes etc. All sorts of sayings, ideas, worries and anxieties to make you dread the thought of ever leaving that boat and being in your own.

There are also the other occasions where it is in fact necessary to rock it, throw people out of yours and perhaps capsize it altogether depending on what circumstance may befall you. Where some people will take whatever action and consequence is necessary to adjust their position on the ‘boat’. And what if it starts sinking all around you, like I have mentioned in Poseidon Adventure, but this would be further along, where there is no longer a boat, but what remains are the shocked inhabitants who can’t believe it’s not there anymore. And even when it may appear you are sailing on calm waters, or drifting along in life just being you, completely unaware that something may be just about to take that boat from under you…

(c) K Wicks