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The Hull, the Sail, and the Rudder
A Search for the Boundaries of the Body, Mind, and Soul
by Avrel Seale
Paperback, 224 pp.
Order this book here.
"Avrel Seale's book is a thoughtful and compelling consideration of what it means to be both human and spiritual. Sailing -- and a near fatal sailing fiasco -- is the metaphor for a gentle yet intelligent search for the meaning of life in the modern world. How the author measures his life at the beginning of this search is quite different from how he describes it at the end. The wonder of this book is the extraordinary journey in between."
--Jim Kunetka, Author of Oppenheimer and Warday
"A poignant and deeply personal spiritual journey of discovery that will speak in fresh and insightful ways to fellow travelers on the spiritual path."
--Khotan Shahbazi-Harmon, Writing on the Air, KOOP 91.7 FM, Austin
"Avrel Seale gets it. His book is a perfect resource for people striving to live lives of significance. If you're looking for authenticity, I highly recommend this wonderful work."
--Byrd Baggett, Speaker and Author of Dare to Soar
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On October 11, 1998, Avrel Seale climbed into his homemade sailboat with a friend to go fishing in the Laguna Madre, the wide bay between South Padre Island Port Isabel, Texas. Through the peril and beauty of the next 15 hours, he would live out an allegory of his life, both his past and his future. And through the metaphor of sailing, he would discover the three irreducible dimensions of human existence -- the hull, the sail, and the rudder.
With a mixture of storytelling, theory, humor, and spiritual exploration, The Hull, the Sail, and the Rudder builds on the work of thinkers from ancient to modern times in an audacious quest for a unified theory of human life. Seale’s destination, it turns out, is as close as the boat he’s sitting in.
Through the workings of the hull, the sail, and the rudder, he learns that our bodies, minds, and souls can be defined by the different functions they perform as well as by their differing internal structures, and that the unique way that those three fields intersect in every person creates our identities.
Seale supports his theory with vignettes from his own life -- from a quirky childhood, to a partying and protracted adolescence, to the birth of his first child and his embarkment on a life of true responsibility and deeper meaning.
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