A story with a lesson

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A group of men stood on the shore about to set sail for a distant land. As they loaded supplies the first man wearing a thick coat & mittens brought heavy furs, snowshoes, a canoe, harpoons & a dogsled team. The second man loaded up with woodaxes, saws, a plow, cattle & horses & lots of seeds & grains. The third man brought canvas tents & hunting gear. The fourth was dressed in lightweight clothes as the loaded his camels & goats on board. Soon the boat was overloaded. The first man turned to the others & told them " Your animals will never be able to survive in the land we're sailing too, its too cold there. You need sleddogs & snowshoes like me to deal with the ice & snow. Get rid of those tents, we'll build igloos.". The second man laughed " No the new land will be forested, we'll build log cabins & grow crops on our farms. The fourth told them their animals would die of thirst on the deserts that await them while the third exclaimed " We'll just live off the land and hunt the buffalo of the plains." . The conversation grew louder as each tried to shout his point above the others. " The distant land will be further to the north so it will be colder shouted the first" . " It will be mountain & forest like our western coast shouted the second." The third & forth agreed it would be flat but couldn't decide if it would be sandy or grassy. They continued to fight & started throwing the other mens gear off the boat. The fourth man said " A friend told a friend who told a friend of my cousin who wrote this note saying that when they were sailing they saw the new land & it was covered in sand but they never landed there". The second man retaliated " Its called a beach you fool!". They continued to squable amoung themselves, driving off the other mens animals & throwing gear into the sea. Before they realized it the tide had come in & washed the now nearly empty boat out to sea. They soon found themselves swept along by the ocean currents & couldn't turn back. Weeks later the boat full of corpses washed ashore on a beautiful paradise. The question, Which man was right? The lesson. Nobody really knows what waits for us on the other side, none of us have been there or have definitive proof. Fighting about it now & trying to force our views on others will only turn us against each other & eventually leave us unprepared for what lies beyond.