Monday, August 6, 2012

N 46° 23.436ʹ W 142° 25.577ʹ; 24.07.12


The future is an ocean;
We are fishies in a school.
Riding current motion,
The currents keep us cool!

    From “The Future Is An Ocean” by &U&I

On the first full day at sea, I began to wonder whether I’d made a huge mistake: two weeks of absolute sameness, nothing to look at but sea and sky, no one to talk to but myself—and reading Nietzsche for Christ’s sake…  What was I thinking?!?  I too shall surely go mad!

Now though, I find it is not sameness at all; the interplay of sea and sky is mutually dynamic.  Like a fractal generator iterating the same recursive function over and over, the seascape is mesmerizing in its ability to display something unique and unexpected in each and every moment, using only sea and sky as its medium.  This afternoon we had a sunny fog so bright and thick you could not see the water from the deck; this evening a peephole in low-hanging layers of woolen stratus cloud reveals aquamarine sky over leaden water as flat as the clouds above.  Who knows what the morning will bring, for recursion is never repetitive.

As for talking only to myself, well, I find that he is generally quite agreeable.  And when I tire of his company, I take a nap.

Solitude—like meditation—takes practice.


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