Florida man Reza Baluchi was arrested after trying to “run to London” across the Atlantic Ocean in a homemade vessel resembling a hamster wheel. Officials said the 44-year-old marathon runner refused to leave the vessel for three days.
He had tried three similar voyages before, all of which ended in Coast Guard intervention.
The makeshift contraption is shaped like a wheel, with paddles designed to propel it forward as the wheel revolves.
“Based on the condition of the vessel – which was afloat as a result of wiring and buoys, Coast Guard officers determined Baluchi was conducting a manifestly unsafe voyage,” the criminal complaint says.
The whole adventure sounds pretty stupid, and his last encounter with the Coast Guard included a bomb threat in an effort to be left alone, but I can’t help but be impressed with this man’s relentlessness and tenacity.
THREE TIMES! The man has attempted this seeming act of lunacy three times!
And who’s to judge? Lots of people seemed crazy while attempting to do something for the first time, only to be celebrated as innovators and heroes later on.
As Steve Jobs famously said in Apple’s “Think Different” campaign:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo.”
Sinead O’Connor was vilified for ripping up a photo of the Pope on SNL to protest child abuse in the church long before anyone was talking about it.
Physician Ignaz Semmelweis instituted handwashing protocols in his obstetric clinic in the 1840s and lowered mortality rates from 18.27% to 1.27%. For his efforts, he was ignored and ostracized by the medical community and terminated fired from his post. It would take almost two decades for germ theory to become accepted by the medical community and for handwashing to become a standard of care in hospitals.
Rose McGowan was ostracized and blacklisted for talking about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse long before anyone believed her.
Giordano Bruno was the first European to propose the possibility that not only was the universe infinite, but stars were possibly suns with their own planets and that some of those planets might even host life.
The Catholic Church had him tried for heresy and burned him at the stake for those claims.
I don’t think attempting to run across the Atlantic Ocean in this contraption is a good idea, and I don’t think he should be burned at the stake for trying, but a lot of great ideas once seemed pretty terrible until proven right.
It seems unlikely that this one will end well, but I admire the hell out of Reza Baluchi’s relentless spirit and willingness to do something that most think foolish, dangerous, and purposeless.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
