Today is August 21. I left Nieuwpoort on August 10 around 5 p.m. with Nicolas. We reached Roscoff on the 14th at 2 a.m., slept a little, took a shower and a good lunch, tinkered with a little and I left around 5:30 p.m. The latest weather and routing files predict an arrival in Nieuwpoort around 28.
So I’m a little over half of this journey, and I take a few moments to draw a few remarks – the conclusions will of course be later!!
The Tous Capables project takes on its full meaning
The objective of this project is of course raising awareness of the difficulties related to child communication problems, non-oralizing (not speaking or little). The point of view that I want to make as obvious as possible is that you have to do everything possible to communicate with your children to give them the chance to develop, to develop their potential. For that, it is above all must never be doubted, always presuming their abilities: it is absolutely necessary to avoid associating communication difficulties and ‘intellectual deficit’. Many children who have benefited from intensive support and in particular from communication tools, alternative and augmented have seen their communication disorders regressed, significantly and allow them to develop writing and reading skills that were difficult to imagine initially possible. Some, with adapted communication tools, pursue higher education, write books, poetry… simply live!
By making this presumption of capacity, skills, potential, we therefore return all their humanity to these children, who, unfortunately in many cases, are considered ‘subhuman’ and left uneducated in the sense of the obligation of education / schooling of children, One of the most fundamental rights of children in our society. Of course, they have to consider that they are able – in the sense of the capacities that must be presupposed.
and more generally that everyone should be considered as such, Tous Capables !
Be careful, it’s not about falling into ‘validism’ – Tous Capables, it is neither a performance slogan nor an injunction to “overcome your handicap”. It doesn’t assume that everyone can do anything, nor that the differences don’t exist.
I refer you to several recent articles published in Le Monde:
- Handicap: how alternative and improved communication gives a voice to those who are deprived of it
- Advocacy for a generalization of citizen learning in alternative and improved communication (tribune)
The parallel with surpassing oneself in navigation
All things considered, sailing alone, or any other activity that really pushes us out of our comfort zone, obviously requires presuming one’s skills: before leaving, we doubt, we hesitate, but if we do not assume that we can do it, we do not leave Never!
What I learn about myself
I already had the opportunity to share a little my emotions, my feelings on board alone, and to exchange also directly with some of my relatives on this subject.
The first few days I was really very stressed, and the little gust of wind at the level of Ireland allowed me – after the fact – to partly overcome this stress, to develop my confidence in the boat. The persistent calm I went through yesterday also put the nerves to the test, with significant weather uncertainties ahead and an imperative to be in Luxembourg on August 31 at the latest.
I am beginning to understand that I am developing at sea, especially alone, an important anxiety about potential technical problems. I try to work on it while trying to rationalize my anxieties, but I have the impression that there are so many factors that can ‘go wrong’ that I could never master them all… I have to reread – and I recommend it to you too – “La Petite Philosophie du Grand Large” by Claude Obadia of which I have already spoken to you, and which precisely sets out this point.
But over time, I still managed to relax, to sleep by just about all the conditions of sea, wind, movements of the boat, noise – even if I know that I have (for now and I hope I will not have one from here arrival) No really strong conditions on this journey.
I believe that I therefore feel highly ambivalent feelings: stress, anxiety, tension on one side, which fade away, and on the other side an intense pleasure in being at sea, living an incredible experience, over a relatively long term.
And the pleasure of sharing this adventure, with almost 200 people on the WhatsApp group, and also several hundred who have read my LinkedIn post, all these encouragements help me and make me realize that I may be right with this project, this parenthesis in life ‘normal’.
