The Unimaginable

The year is 1786. Reflecting upon his sailing journeys across the Atlantic Ocean, an American polymath starts to observe how neither route choice nor speed guarantee the fastest arrival to their destination to similar vessels navigating across the Atlantic.

What Benjamin Franklin imagines, then – and proceeds to chart with stunning accuracy – is that it is an invisible force lying beneath boats (which will be since then known as the Gulf Stream) that powers them.

We human beings will spend days, months, years at times crafting our vision of our future – some of the best days of our lives will bring those ideas to fruition. We will also face events, however, which we did not, could not, would never think would happen to us.

When the unimaginable strikes – when the unseen pulls us under water – can we use optimism (and our inner human ability to focus on our future ) to help us come up for air, and perhaps swim in these choppier waters?