S/V WAYWARD... A Name for the Way

wayward  
     adjective

           1. Toward the Way.
           2. Questions authority; insubordinate. 
           3. Difficult to control or predict.
           4. Neither entirely conventional nor respectable.

      Technically from ME away-ward


S/V WAYWARD... A Name for the Way

A long time ago, before I first set foot on board a sailing vessel, before Anke, I drew a picture of a Curvy Dog and wrote: I shall build a boat and name her WAYWARD, and we shall sail away.

Yeah, yeah. Sappy, I know. But it was a promise to myself that helped see me through a dark time.

As we built our various homes, I kept that name in the running, though it didn't appeal to Anke.

But one day, as the new boat began taking on enough shape to really feel her spirit, Anke idled over the list of names scrawled in the margins of the plan, and this time WAYWARD caught her eye, prompting What a great name!

We gave it a month of fair trial to be sure. And now we are.

Looking it up, one finds some less-than-complimentary meanings. But they all pretty much paraphrase as the meanings listed above. These much better match resonances to which we attune.

All but the first, we like to think, are secondary descriptors of ourselves. We question authority at many's the turn, and evade it where we can. We can be hard to pin down, and can't predict our own path from one day to the next. We're dots toward the thin end of any bell curve. We're no paragon of propriety.

But our favorite meaning indicates the WAY... the Road, the Tao, the Watercourse Way. Toward the Way.

WAYWARD.