Our World Revisited: A Ship In a Bottle Sets Sail

                           There is a song written by Dave Matthews that I really love. It talks about a ship in bottle, a popular handcrafted model first originating in 1750 European monasteries. When you look at the figure it seems impossible that a handcrafted miniature ship would be able to fit through the opening of that bottle. Its also rather thought provoking, seeing as though ships are meant for sailing and is a means of transportation, but inside of a bottle where can it go? How can it serve it's purpose? When I think about these questions I began to feel that humanity is alot like this ship in a bottle. We have so much purpose and so much potential, many things to offer beyond what we can see or imagine. Albert Einstein, the smartest man who ever lived only used 10% of his brain capacity, making one wonder what life would be like if we used ninety or one hundred percent! There's so many things we never knew existed until now and there is so much we have yet to know. We are ships. Each of set sail in this life not knowing the future or where we will be or even our next breath for life isn't promised to anyone. Sometimes we see the ship in a bottle as defeated, as the end. We look around us and just because we are in this bottle called planet Earth, we feel there is no use in setting sail, in thinking beyond it, in hoping or believing for the future. Afterall, how can a ship inside of a bottle set sail?
                                      I looked again at this cool sculpture and I noticed the fine details of the ship, the way it stood upright as if it was already afloat, as if it had somewhere to go, as if it was boldly denying its presence inside the bottle and was sure that wherever its captain wanted it to go it would get there. Hope. The meaning of your life is not determined by your circumstance, just like the purpose of this ship isn't determined by its presence inside of a bottle. Be a ship in a bottle, upright and bold, setting sail towards your destiny with certainty that you will get there. To that ship there is no bottle, and to that man there is nothing he cannot do.