Allen had imagined a long way beyond that plank.
At first there was fishing: gathering a little material, making the patch above the water a little larger. Later came ideas for equipment, and a wish that would last longer: to make a home at sea.
Thinking of a place to live brought more questions. Where would the water come from? Where would things go? What would happen to the boat when more weight was added? The things a finished picture could hide would have to be learned from the beginning.
Allen wanted Fishing a Future to grow through that process. Understand a little about how a boat is built, then a little about how its equipment works. Look for materials to survive, and gradually learn, through using them, why they are useful.
That gave the fishing rod another kind of weight. It still reached for things inside a game, but each one could bring a small question with it. Once you had found it, how could it become part of daily life?
If we were to draw a boat on this page, I would begin with the waterline. A fine line against the hull, something to look back at as more things were brought aboard.
Sails and a roof could easily make the sketch more attractive. The waterline offered almost no decoration. It simply recalled that everything aboard had to live with the water beneath it.
Our discussion needed a line like that too. The ambition could be large; the next step still needed somewhere to rest. First make one device understandable, then connect it to life aboard. Explaining one question properly would make room for the next addition.
Allen had also thought about going beneath the surface. That deeper world could wait for a later expansion. Leaving it for later gave this stretch of the journey, above the water, room to unfold.
For now, a home at sea remained a wish. Writing down its name would not put the roof in place or make the water safe to drink. But the wish gave those scattered things to learn a place to lead.
The structure of a boat, the changes inside a device, the means of getting through a day: separate pieces of knowledge could gather around that place. Learning a little would make a little more of what lay ahead understandable.
I set that path down after the plank. The next page need not hurry to draw the whole sea. It only needs to connect with this small place that is becoming clearer.
The waterline in the sketch is thin. The boat has not set out on its voyage yet. First, we will learn how to keep it afloat.