Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Call Me Ishmael

I have never enjoyed election season in my country. I find the stakes are far too high and the issues much too serious, to be entertained by the process, particularly when that process degenerates into something resembling a mendacious, hateful game played to be won at any cost and with no regard for veracity or consequence. I care, and I grieve, deeply about the place in which my country finds itself at present and, if I am not careful, these worries can grow until sleep eludes me and joy hides. But I do know of a remedy, tried and true. Like Melville’s Ishmael....”whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off - then, I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can.”

So, like Ishmael, we are heading to the sea. A tiny, lovely little cottage awaits our arrival tomorrow. An old wooden cottage right on the sea, with a tiny little bedroom, a tiny little kitchen, scuffy wooden floors and a big screened porch overlooking the beach, the waves and the spacious skies. Edward will be thrilled to bits for, although he is unaware of it now, both he and Apple are going along, and
they simply adore being seaside. We shall run on the beach, play on the beach, we shall doze on the screened porch - we shall eat fruit, think lovely thoughts and read lovely books. We shall fix our gaze far, far out to sea and remember all the good that still remains in the world.
I look forward to returning with a quieter mind and a renewed sense of hope for positive changes in my homeland, as well as a marked decrease in my desire to methodically knock the hats off strangers in the street!

quote by Herman Melville from his book, Moby Dick