dead reckoning

This is defined as a system of working out ones current position in relation to a previous known position.

One would have to  factor in distance traveled, direction, wind, time travelled, speed, drift and a host of other factors that influence movement and at the end arrive at a conclusion on where one is at the present.

This can be repeated over, and over during a long journey and was once an Integral part of navigation.

The sightings of the stars and celestial land marks were used to confirm the accuracy of the dead reckoning to make in flight adjustments as and when they were deemed necessary.

With the advent of GPS this is less relevant to us in our daily lives and has become a dying science/art.

What I would like to explore here is how we could use dead reckoning to our lives and track  our personal growth.

If we look back at a moment in time when we were firmly  grounded and try to calculate which direction we went in, and for how long, and how fast, we could in theory, once we factor in all the assistance we received and all the interferences, get a decent idea of where we are now. 

In our current society we simply look around us and we know where we are. We don't question this as our current situation is easy to establish from our surroundings. 

Just like using GPS to pin point your location. 

The thing is that this only gives you some of the story. 

If we want to know who we are, and where we are, we can't always depend on what we see, or what we hear from those around us. 

Our loved ones are kind to us and are not always able to be honest with us. Our own self image and biases cloud our vision to the point that we might not actually be getting a decent read on who or where we are.

Perhaps we could use dead reckoning, that has served the mariners for millenia to assist us in finding our selves.

The idea is to look back into our past to find a point where we felt grounded. We all have a real or imagined point in time when we knew who we were, what we wanted and where we were heading.

From that point replay the direction you headed in, the people you loved and hurt along the way, the good and bad you have done, and yes you need to factor the nurturing hand of others in your life. Subtract the hurt inflicted on you and you should  be able to calculate your current position. 

In a perfectly "just" world you should be exactly where you aught to be. 

That most of us are not, can only mean that either we have not factored in everything that influenced our journey, or that what we see when we look around is an illusion. That we are not who we think are. Not where we think we are. 

Perhaps we just got turned around in the dark. 

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴

Jan 2022