Thoughts about luck

"On our last night on the Happy Islands I stood at the window for a long time, looking out at Flamingo Bay where a girl dolphin and a boy dolphin played at a game of catch.

Toward morning I dreamed of a blue bay where orange-colored dolphins danced, and I realized again that reality and dream are the same for those who are happy."

The Captain was quiet and I was quiet too.  The night wind played gently with the leaves of the olive tree and high above it stood the big yellow moon.  From the sea, the lights of a ship drifted into the harbor.

"Well, sir," asked the Captain.  "Did you enjoy the Happy Islands?"

"Captain," I answered.  "If it were up to me, all five continents of the earth would turn into Happy Islands.  But I know, unfortunately, that dream and reality are seldom the same.  Their kind of happiness is out of reach of us forever."

"Exactly," said the Captain.  "But even if we will never have such happiness in this world we can travel with a vision of it.  We must know what happiness is before we try to find it.  We need to have at least glimpsed this paradise, just as the seafarer needs the North Star to guide his ship."

-- from The Happy Islands Behind the Winds, by James Krüss, 1966