Start in life

(Het Begin van het Leven)

1. My name is Robinson Crusoe. I was born in 1632 in York, England. My father came from Germany and was a merchant. He made good money and then stopped working. He lived in York and married my mother there. Her family name was Robinson.

2. I had two older brothers in my family. One brother was a soldier in the army. He died in a war in Flanders. I never knew what happened to my other brother. My parents never knew what happened to me either. I was the third son of the family. My father did not teach me a trade.

3. I started to dream about adventure. I thought about traveling all the time. My father was old. He sent me to school. He wanted me to be a lawyer. But I only wanted one thing. I wanted to go to sea.

4. My father was angry about this. My mother was angry too. All my friends told me to stay home. But something inside me wanted to go. I could not stop thinking about ships and the ocean. I did not know that this desire would bring me terrible problems.

5. One day my father called me to his room. He was sick with gout. He could not walk. He wanted to talk seriously with me. "Why do you want to leave?" he asked. "You have everything here. You can have a good life. You can make money."

6. He sat up in his bed. His face was serious. "Listen to me, son. Poor men go to sea. They must eat. Rich men go to sea to become famous. But you are not poor. You are not rich. You are in the middle."

7. "The middle life is perfect," my father continued. "Poor people work too hard. Their bodies break. They never have enough food. Rich people have other problems. They worry about their money. They have enemies."

8. "But people in the middle? They have enough. They are healthy. They sleep well at night. Even kings wish they were born in the middle class. The wise men of old said it too. They wanted just enough. That is what you have, my son."

9. My father kept talking. "In the middle class you can have peace. You can have friends. You can enjoy simple pleasures. You work but not too hard. You have money but not too much. You do not need to fight for bread. You can live honestly and die peacefully."

10. Then his voice became harder. "But if you go to sea? You will find only misery. I warn you now. If you leave, you will suffer. You will be alone. You will be hungry. You will face storms and sickness."