PLIMSOLL LINE

I’m reading At Sea with God, by Margaret Silf (now out of print, but available in the UK), and in today’s reading, she introduced me to the Plimsoll Line. It’s a mark – a white line – on the outside of a boat’s hull, and if it’s loaded so this line sinks below the water mark, the boat is too heavily loaded and is in danger of sinking. Interestingly, it was devised in England in 1876 by Samuel Plimsoll, and it’s not just a single line but a series of lines, showing the level of the Plimsoll Line for various degrees of salinity and temperature. In warm, fresh water the Plimsoll Line is high; in cold salt water, it’s much lower, quite a span of tolerance.

Wouldn’t it be handy if one’s life had a Plimsoll Line, an alert to let us know when we were getting into something deserving caution. Or maybe we do have a built-in Plimsoll Line for life, equally sensitive to varying conditions and situations: our common sense. Now, to pay attention to it.