taking to the sea

"Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and 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 sea as soon as I can."

So this summer, I tried to read Moby Dick. And although my trio of attempts came up severely short as I accepted any bad airplane movie as an excuse to stop reading, I did read the first page over and over. And I couldn't help but appreciate Mr. Melville's extremely apt description of the water that I love so much. It wasn't a few times that I had to employ a "strong moral principle" to keep myself from deliberately stepping into Hong Kong's streets and methodically knocking people in the head. Just because. But thankfully, I had Lake Powell coming - I was able to take to the sea and calm my frazzled nerves.

And now I can tell Herman that at least I tried. Maybe he and I could sit down together someday and he could just give me the Cliff's Notes version of the plot. And then we could talk about taking to the sea. Because, after all, we have at least that in common.

"Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water...Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Surely all this is not without meaning...We ourselves see in all rivers and oceans...the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all."