BRAND VISION: Look Back & See Forward

by Anne M. Berg

It was late. We were tired.

We had sailed into the night. Now, we were motoring in the dark through a narrow canal in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Suddenly, the depth meter was warning us of shallow water. Our chartered boat had an eight-foot keel and we were at risk of going aground. The depth reading at 15 feet, then 12. The more we advanced, the shallower the water became.

The view ahead revealed complete darkness with accents of soft light glowing from cottages along the shoreline.

The view behind us was curious. Two vivid lights shone in the blackness on the far shore — hanging in the dark, a slight width apart, at different heights. The key to getting on course lay in bringing these two radiant spheres of light into line.

We slowly turned a few degrees and the two bright lights came into vertical alignment. The depth meter reading increased. Exhale!

The next day, I sat with my legally blind Uncle Jack on the lawn of his cottage. He listened to our anxious story of navigating the canal and said: “Sometimes you have to look back where you came from, in order to know where you’re going.”

Such simple advice from a complicated man, who couldn’t see but who could perceive so much more than most.