Investment

Loose lips might sink ships, warned a World War 2 era slogan coined by the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI).

Bananas on board certainly do – according to one of the numerous superstitions attributed to sailors. The tropical berry’s legendary bad reputation at sea stems from concerning reasons ranging from harboring venomous spiders, to accelerating spoilage of nearby perishable cargo due to ethylene gas emissions, to causing falls if their peels were discarded on board, to repelling fish with their sweet scent. Additional (perhaps mythical) historical reasons are related to bananas-carrying cargo ships, occasionally sinking because they were forced to navigate too fast to allow for adequate fishing time before their load spoiled (as evidenced by grim bananas flotsam).

Ships sink when they lose stability, or their hull is punctured. When in our daily life, imbalance and collisions with unwelcome events imperil our navigation, investing in levity can be helpful.

Sometimes, a smile keeps our vessel afloat.