Earlier today I had an email that led to confusion. In part of the interchange, the other person wrote that he felt privileged to converse with a celebrity/legend.
I replied:
I am not a celebrity. I am now in old age routinely called a legend in a very small world.
I am alone. I always have been, despite the women in my life. I write that with minimal regret. It has become my natural state. The minimal is that I sometimes wonder what I would have been if I had had useful parents. I believe I am an original and I have understood from the beginning that almost all original experiments are failures and think I may have written that in STORM PASSAGE.
If you read the September 27 journal entry you will find Kant, Bach, Glenn Gould, Mahler, Mozart, Camoes, all from memory and from a body that has made voyages no one else ever made or ever even imaged. And is trying to figure out what he/it ought still to do.
I don’t know for whom I write. The numbers are few. Too many zeros right of the decimal point even to consider. I suppose I write because I am a writer.
In any event I try to bridge the gap between myself and others and feared I had responded too abruptly to you earlier.
While writing this I have been listening to the soundtrack of the movie NOMADLAND which Carol watched on her return flight from a business trip to California and recommended to me. I rented it from Amazon and watched earlier today. While grim, it is superbly acted, directed and filmed. Carol thinks the words about some people being nomads applies to me. I have never thought of myself that way.
I wish you well and hope I make it for another six weeks and join you as an octogenarian because that will be one of the greatest cosmic jokes ever.
Webb,
ReplyDeleteYou may not be a celebrity, but you have been an inspiration to me, as a sailor, as a writer and as "an original".
I also enjoyed NOMADLAND. I realized after watching it that I, too, am some sort of nomad. My connections to places and people are deep and sincere, but I also accept the Law of Impermanence, that everything is always changing, that I will exist for less than a blink of an eye and that that gift is not to be wasted.
As you approach 80, may you be healthy, happy, wholehearted and live in peace. And I believe you have more hopes to be realized and will enjoy reading about them.
Our paths nearly crossed at Skull Creek last year. My boat was probably within a few hundred yards of Gannet. I didn't realize this until too late and I left without paying homage. Oh well. Next time around!
Best Wishes,
Steve
s/v Intermezzo
blog.sailingintermezzo.com
Reflecting what Steve writes, your log is the one and only running journal I follow on a regular basis. Checking in with some frequency let's me imagine that I could be your friend, and for that I will remain ever grateful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words, Steve. If GANNET and I are in Hilton Head when you next pass through I will give you the grand tour of the little boat. That takes about a minute.
ReplyDeleteI consider all who stay with me on this voyage to be kindred spirts and friends.
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