The online dictionary defines dead reckoning as “the process of calculating one’s position, especially at sea, by estimating the direction and distance traveled rather than by using landmarks, astronomical observations, or electronic navigation methods.” In mid-ocean, there are no landmarks, save for islands. Today’s electronic navigation methods are barely a century old (and less in the case of GPS). It is not always easy for navigators to get a precise fix on the sun or stars because the skies at sea are often covered with clouds or dense fog, making navigation tricky. How many captains today, enamored with electronic time signals, radar, Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS), etc., are capable of dead reckoning with any degree of accuracy is uncertain.
Perhaps the most impressive application of dead reckoning in history was made by Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty after the famous mutiny in 1789. Bligh and eighteen of his officers and men were loaded into a twenty-three-foot launch and left in the middle of the ocean. Bligh, however, who was Captain Cook’s sailing master, managed to navigate 3,600 nautical miles (more than the distance from New York City to Los Angeles) to the island of Timor, roughly the size of Connecticut, using dead reckoning with occasional celestial fixes—an impressive feat for anyone of any era.
Fletcher Christian, who led the mutiny was thought to have been killed on Pitcairn Island shortly after.
And then, how were the people from Polynesia able to find the Hawaiian Islands twelve centuries ago when they first arrived?
Dead reckoning in our daily lives
We often use the point-to-point framework of dead reckoning to navigate on our own journey: that journey through life that begins in the cradle and ends in the grave. The traditional notion of success in life in the U.S. was summed up in the last century as “one house, one spouse, one job.” By paying off a mortgage as quickly as possible and never moving, you would avoid paying mortgage interest on other homes for the remainder of your life. By not divorcing, you would not be required to pay alimony or child support for a previous marriage while attempting to start another family. Working for one firm over the years almost guaranteed a steady job, quite possibly with promotions and other benefits. But realistically, we know this is not how life unfolds.
People in smaller homes need extra bedrooms as they have children, who in turn need bathrooms and additional living space in general. Plus, a home is no guarantee of being in a convenient location to one’s work year after year. Then, there are illnesses and car accidents while employers move to another state or country or go out of business altogether. Jobs such as bus drivers, trolley operators, milkmen, radio repairmen, switchboard operators, piano tuners, garage mechanics, etc., are either in little demand today or have no demand at all anymore. AI promises to eliminate many more professions such as bookkeepers, translators, proofreaders, authors, radiologists, journalists, legal assistants, software developers, graphic designers plus many others. So, simply plotting a straight line between early childhood and old age doesn’t necessarily work in real life.
For Captain Bligh to chart a straight line from Tofua to Timor does not account for the effect of crosswinds, contrary ocean currents, insensible drift, or an imperceptible calculation error as small as a degree or less could make his small crew of castaways miss Timor by hundreds of miles. Likewise, on your journey through life, you might encounter things you did not foresee, are not aware of or cannot control, such as caring for an elderly parent or dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. You might lose your life savings in a bad investment. You could face costly repairs to your home because you were not able to afford flood or storm insurance. Therefore, people today are encouraged to be aware of where their life is taking them and to make appropriate course corrections as soon as they are required. This might mean paying back your student loans as quickly as possible, consolidating them, or moving them into another program to avoid interest. Borrowing from your retirement 401(k) might or might not make sense.
What of your psychological needs?
Many things can bring you misfortune in terms of your mental well-being. Some of these include alcohol and drug addiction, mental and sexual abuse, untreated depression, and feelings of isolation and hopelessness, to mention just a few. Even your young children can be victimized by bullying. In 2022, there were 500 American children between the ages of ten and fourteen who committed suicide. Many of these children never started high school. Young people in particular have not developed coping mechanisms. They don’t have the longevity of being able to reflect back on their past to understand that bad times often are brief and that there is joy ahead. Sometimes people understand that there is help, but that help is not available to them. For example, people who are morbidly obese might benefit from weight-loss drugs, but their insurance does not cover these medications. A person with alcohol dependency might lose their job if they sought treatment, so continuing to drink makes sense to them.
I’ve seen people shrivel up and die in the prime of their life because of grief over the loss of a loved one. I knew a middle-aged professional woman who was addicted to pain killers and took her own life leaving her children behind. There are more people wrestling with existential questions than there are people who claim to have answers to these questions. In other cases, desperate cries for help fall on deaf ears. Skills as simple as developing and sustaining healthy relationships with others are not taught.
Then there is the issue of stress. Stress is a killer. Anger is a killer, particularly if you have a heart condition. There is not enough emphasis on stress reduction in our world, and Tai Chi classes on Thursday nights at the “Y” are not nearly enough.
Are you caring for your spirit?
This domain is as important as your body and mind are. To me as someone battling cancer and who will be eighty years old in a few years, I tend to focus on this area of my life more and more because it will be the only part of me that survives the next thirty years and more. I don’t have to carry around an extra forty pounds for eternity, nor a fear of spiders, but I do have to make sure my spirit is in good shape. Who wants to spend eternity with a bad attitude?
We communicate with our Creator through our spirit. Yes, the eyes in my body show me God’s splendor everytime I see a glorious sunset and my ears enjoy hearing the wind rustle though the trees and the squirrels bark to each other. My mind can appreciate hope, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace and so on. But my spirit is what brings me closest to God. In the Bible, the apostle James says (4:8) “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James does not mean walk to drive to the Vatican or a church where you think God might be. Nor does he mean that God will climb into the passenger seat of your tricked-out truck. James doesn’t mean you should use your mind to imagine this seeing God. James is referring to approaching God in our Spirit. Crying out to Him where we are at the moment that He calls us or we need Him. He will guide us, chart a course for us and steer us as a Captain steers a ship.
God says in Romans (6:11) “Likewise reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This another definition of dead reckoning and it will serve you well to remember it and to practive it yourself.
Just as Captain Bligh needed to travel from Tofua to Timor using dead reckoning, our journey is from law to grace, or death to life. And “Yes!” there are contrary currents and crosswinds. Still, God’s hand nudges us starboard to port when correction is needed.
