Careers for the Seaworthy

 

An early study, circa 1995, for a larger copy, made later, of A. P. Ryder's 1896 painting "Constance"

A career is an oar-less boat floated upon the oceans. Was it the excitement of launch or sheer ignorance that kept eyes from those empty oarlocks until far out at sea? No matter, now, how much muscle can power it, no matter how well the eye and mind can read stars, this boat floats aimlessly. By day or night, alone in this craft, the visage of safe harbor might appear by chance. In calm waters, the disorienteer looks over the side, an experience of self-loathing in such reflection. A longing develops for useful distraction; maybe the rage and terror of storms because survival, itself, seems victory over this condition. Still, no change is to come; the boat remains adrift. 

 

The oar-less are never alone at sea. Those that float become drawn to each other by the pull of great currents and collections of gyres. There is comfort and salvation as each boat clings to the other, but some push off, wanting to drift apart, as the apparition of fate is seen in the other. For those who hold boats together, there are dreams of ports and harbors and many imagined destinations, until the next storm overcomes the hold each has on the other.

Currents, at times, move the boat in shore's sight. Finally, a chance to be seen. Surely they will come; surely they'll pull this boat ashore. But no one looks up and no one looks out. How did they find their place ashore? Had they pushed off at the ready, with oars in their locks? With such bitterness and jealousy the boat now takes on, it would rather move out of sight of this unwelcoming shore; far from the landed, a boat finds its peace. Out there, adrift, back pressed to the stern, eyes follow heavens arc toward hope's endless horizon.