At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Portugal’s population was about a million. The national economy consisted mostly of fishing and subsistence farming, and its kings were too poor to mint their own gold coins.
But in a period of a little more than one hundred years, the Portuguese pushed faster and farther across the world than any people in history.
Previous explorers had certainly sailed boldly into unknown seas, but in this period the Portuguese sailed down the entire endless west coast of Africa, rounded the Cape, and reached India in 1498, touched Brazil in 1500, China in 1514, and Japan in 1543.
And it was a Portuguese navigator who guided the Spanish in sailing around the world in the years after 1518. The Portuguese accomplishments made Columbus’s discovery look like a day cruise in the bay—more notable in the West only because it happened there.
Voyagers Need a Map
How could such a small, poor country do all this? Their legacy remains today in the Portuguese-founded cities throughout Asia and in the language of Brazil, a country 100 times as large as the country of their mother tongue. The secret?
Maps. Everywhere the Portuguese went, they carried the best navigational aids available: astrolabes, quadrants, depth gauges, tables for determining latitude, and the latest maps, with information about locations, rivers for fresh water, ports, winds, tides, currents, seasonal variations, and more.
And as they sailed, they created and updated maps, making their next journeys far easier and more productive. Navigators were elevated to the highest positions in the kingdom.
These maps attained an almost mystical status, and they were protected with a deep secrecy that was underlined by a royal death sentence for unauthorized sharing of this information.
Even with the maps, in one early voyage the sailors—in less than a year—traveled twenty-four thousand miles, enduring great hardships, disease, unimaginable storms, starvation, and more. Two-thirds of the crew died.
Parents Need a Map
Good parenting is a journey of no less difficulty than exploring new worlds, but now we don’t have to travel 24,000 miles. We don’t have to wander aimlessly looking for favorable winds, currents, and landfall. We don’t have to get sick, weather storms, and die.
We don’t have to travel blind because we already have the maps we need. We have the Ridiculously Effective Parenting Training right in front of us at RealLoveParents.com, and we have access to those who have been to the promised land before us.
Stay with the maps. It’s still a difficult journey, but with guidance it’s infinitely easier and more fulfilling. And as you sail with your children, you’ll find and chart new coastlines, inlets, islands, and rivers. It’s quite an adventure when we have a map.
Without one, it becomes a nightmare of hidden reefs, overwhelming currents, and winds that drive us backward and eventually against the rocks.
There is no greater journey or reward than raising children who feel loved, and who are loving and responsible. And we don’t have to figure out the way by ourselves anymore.
Welcome to the journey.
