Space Bridges Happiness

Phædrus and his crewman Bill Capella were sailing from the Great Lakes toward Kingston when they passed through the final lock. "That meant sea-level," Phædrus writes. "It meant that all the inland man-made locks were gone. Now only the passage of the moon over the ocean controlled the rise and fall of the boat." The feeling of being connected without barriers to the ocean gave him "a huge new feeling of space." And that space, he was beginning to understand, was the source of a profound happiness.

What made them so happy was the space—the sudden opening in their overscheduled lives. "I think what we're buying with these boats is space, nothingness, emptiness," Phædrus said. "Huge sweeps of open water and sweeps of time with nothing to do. That's worth a lot of money. You can't hardly find that stuff anymore." Space, it turns out, isn't just something we move through. It's what creates room for happiness to emerge.