We are all people on a ship at sea. The ship has everything we need, and we float around endlessly. It is natural for us to want to steer the boat, and so, to avoid confusion or disaster, there is a captain who will be in charge of the steering the boat. And the Captain gets a hat. It is a fine Captain’s Hat.
A person may be growing up on this boat and when they are still a child they look up to see the Captain. They are standing up in the part where Captains stand and look in command. Where they wear their fine hats. And this child might think, “I’d like to be the Captain”. And perhaps this child lives on a ship where the mother says, “You can be anything if you work hard for it,” as the cynical father scoffs, “It’s all a game and you’re not a player”.
But then comes the day when everyone on the ship decides that, yes, this child (who is no longer a child but a full-grown and educated adult) should be the next Captain. This person, once a child staring up from below, has courted the favor of the others aboard the vessel; earned their trust. The newly chosen Captain has proven they respect the ship well enough to steer it with all pride and admiration the people have come to expect of their Captains.
And so, this person is given the hat in a fancy ceremony, the same hat worn by all the Captains, and everyone applauds. Then the new Captain, in the old hat, is taken to that part where Captains go. The part of the boat where everyone below sees the Captain standing high above them, watching over the ship, steering it, guiding it …
But as the Captain enters the room — It is discovered there is no steering wheel. No rutter. No .. anything. It’s just a room with some windows. No mechanism with which to actually steer the boat. It is only a hat. It was only ever just a hat. A very fine Captain’s hat.