[L, diary, ephēmeris] 1) BLOG

In this century, and moment, of mania,

tell me a story.

Make it a story of Great distances and starlight.

The name of the story will be Time,

but you must not pronounce its name.

Tell me a story of deep delight.

--Robert Penn Warren--

     This morning, while thinking of last night's gathering of cruisers and local neighbors to view a video travelog of one family's sailing life aboard their home, the catamaran EMMA PEEL, I was also thumbing through an old journal to verify something trivial when I came across the above quote.  It had been hastily added to the end of an entry with no explanation of its significance to me, though I could guess: it was a challenging concept to illustrate in a visual, not literary, medium.

     Pleased with myself to have, even momentarily, captured (and then recaptured) the quote for a meaningful project I then wondered, But HOW? What metaphors, what images or colors might shape the story of time, without using the word? 

     Immediately I knew: last night's video presentation exactly fulfilled the poem's stipulations. Robert's family and their life was exactly a story about time, great distances, starlight, and deep delights.  The tale he narrated was of a dream spawned in his Austrian youth, to sail the Pacific in a boat named for his star-struck, teen-aged love for an adventurous actress in a television series.  The video began when, as an adult, he'd found his boat in Malaysia, then sailed to the Philippines where he fell in love with Maritess, an adventurous Filipina, an experienced sailor who loved life afloat. They married, had a son, Louis, and together the three of them produced sailing videos and chartering expeditions for European travelers.  

     Robert's video was narrated alternately by music chosen to accompany sequences of photos without oral narrative, and Robert's instant  translation into English for scenes with Louis' acute German observations of sailing life with Mama & Poppa. Interwoven throughout was an unmistakable tribute of deep respect and love for Maritess,  displayed in cumulative photos as she skillfully, joyfully and knowledgeably fulfilled her multiple roles of First Mate, Wife, Mother, Ship's Provisioner & Cook; a true Wise Woman in the ways of holistic living.

For,

What is time if not each individual's life?

What is a boat if not a traveler of great distances...

of starlight passages, unexpected deep delights?

Has it not been thus for centuries...

wandering peoples...afloat...on land?

Possibly these stories need to be told even more so, now,

in this century's extreme moment of mania.

    Robert's fulfillment (to my satisfaction) of Penn Warren's poem has pleased and relieved me of feeling unfulfilled if I don't also produce a version, though on the other hand, it sets a creative opportunity to contribute my own vision along similar lines; a different facet of a prism's rainbow.