Long Burn

I will go down with the ship

I used to go camping a lot and part of the fun was coming
back to civilization all roughed up-- smelling of wood
smoke, bandaged, sun and windburned, hopefully with a
few fish scales dried onto the skin. I remember wanting
milk when I would come back from the wilderness. What
did I want this time when coming back to civilization? I
wanted to read blogs to see what my friends are up to, and
to blog.

We weren't in the wilderness really, that's not the place for
families with small kids. But we were in a cabin by a lake.
Fredrik caught two fish (none for me) and they tased great.
We went swimming 2-3-4 times a day. Saw lots of animals
including a family of foxes, merganzers, Canadian geese,
loons, woodpeckers.

Here's today's link to a great essay-- a sampling:

We will all go down on one ship or another because we
have no idea how we came to be on this ball of feverish
algae and germs that endlessly circles the star we call Sol.
We have no idea why Sol exists in a spiral arm of the galaxy
we call the Milky Way. And we don't know enough to even
phrase the questions in meaningful ways.

So you will go down with your ship. You will ride your ship of
belief until it disappears beneath the waves. For a time
there will be ripples on the surface of the water, your legacy
and memory, but those ripples will eventually spread and
disappear. After that it will be as if you never existed.
And this ship will not be some fancy ocean liner with a
famous name like "Christianity" or "agnosticism" or
"Buddhism" or "Generic American Political and Social
God-ism." No, your ship will be the small vessel that you are
creating with your own hands, and those of a few sailing
buddies who are a part of your convoy.

posted by Matt_J @ 11:03 AM