Ships.

Relationships and friendships, to be more precise.

Like a ship, things begin to sink when there is too much cargo. Now, when this happens, you have several options.

1. You can jump ship. You can hop into a little boat and sail away. You're safe and on the way to dry land. However, you leave behind your crew. You leave behind the cargo. You leave the terrible terrible situation behind. It's not your problem any more. A clean break.

2. Walk the plank. Now, if you want to save your ship and your cargo, you can always make your crew walk the plank. Yeah, you'll lose the people who support you, but you have your beloved ship and your precious cargo for company. Cosy, right?

3. Go down with it. They say the captain goes down with the ship. However, in your pride, you take down your ship, crew and cargo with you. Everything sinks.

4. Drop the cargo. Now, this cargo may be valuable, it may mean a lot. The satisfaction of winning an argument, getting the last word in, proving something wrong. In one's ego, these can seem very important. But you think. Is this 'valuable' load, really that valuable? Is it more important than your ship or your crew?

When there is too much history, too much hurt, too much misunderstanding, relationships sink. The weight of such things, like the weight of a ship's cargo, pull everything and everyone else down with it.

A selfish captain would choose option one; they now have nothing and no one to worry about but themselves.

A greedy captain would choose option two; they save themselves, their ship and their cargo, but sacrifices the crew.

A proud captain would choose option three; everything they've worked for has not been destroyed but anyone else, but themselves.

A true captain chooses option four.

If you were the captain, what would you choose?