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A quote: “And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” ~~ John Masefield
I’ll start with a story …
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She was, arguably, the most brilliant and beautiful of her class. She passed every test, every mentor sent to challenge her left in awe …
… and just a bit afraid.
She remained calm, hiding her yearning to be done and gone. Most nights she’d open a window to stare at a star-strewn sky.
The last day brought two visitors. The Dean who asked, “Why do you call yourself “she”?”
And the man interrupted to say, “Because ships have always been female.”
She trembled as he touched her console, “I’m your captain. We are going to do great things together.”
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license
Iwoots says: “MOM! Dad wanted his ashes spread at sea?”
“He loved the ocean.”
“What?!? Except for six years in the Navy, he spent all his life here in Wisconsin. If he loved the ocean so much, why didn’t we ever take any trips to the ocean?”
“I wanted to. I said “I haven’t seen the ocean since I lived in California”.”
Years later, I understand now.
He’d told mom – “For the call of the running tide, is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied. When I married you, I forsook all others; including my beloved mistress.”
Navig8r says: She is a jewel of the shipbuilders’ art. Brand new. She slid down the slips less than a week ago. Then the young owner learned the hard way that stud poker is not a game of chance and the money for the sails was gone. It will be a slight delay, but in a couple more days the moneylenders will do what moneylenders do and there will be a new, more responsible owner. Sails will be acquired and installed. A captain, crew, and cargo will appear in due time. Then she will take her proper place on the high seas.
Even after all these years, Reggie Waite still remembered the first time his dad took him down to Boston to see the USS Constitution there in the historic harbor. It had been an odd choice of destinations, given that George Waite was a West Pointer whose Army career had ended with a jeep accident in Vietnam. On the other hand, Boston Harbor was also where the patriots had dumped chests of tea into the water to protest Parliament’s taxes, one of the first overt acts of the Revolutionary War.
But the sight of that historic ship had awakened something in Reggie. Perhaps it was something in his genes, hearing the same call that Alan Shepard had, long before he became an astronaut and America’s first man in space.
Even after all these years, Reggie still missed the ocean. Had that been part of his punishment when he was exiled out here to Farside?
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