Crowding the Line

Late in October 2012, we attended a performance of “Moby Dick” executed masterfully by the San Francisco Opera.  While, as a barbershop singing enthusiast, I didn’t particularly enjoy the atonal operatic voicing of the production, the principals gave a phenomenal rendering, and the orchestral interpretation and staging of this profoundly dark and philosophical work were awe-inspiring. 

One thing especially stuck with me – Ahab’s late-in-the-chase lament:

“What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare?”  

There I was, retired for more than a year attending the opera in San Francisco – 2,000 miles from home in Kentucky, brooding about how to get my new invention plus 40 years worth of motivational resources into mainstream circulation; conjuring plans for patching the concrete driveway before another winter sets in; lamenting the state of my physical conditioning as I watched multitudes of bicyclists (mostly European) tackling the brutal inclines and desolate wastelands around the bay area ... 

Our cat is clearly not impressed by the preoccupation!  Try explaining to a cat why you must haul your carcass out of bed before dawn every morning and work beyond sundown when all you really have to do is open a can of tuna and fill the water dish to make it through the day …

Or try explaining it to the legions of street people omnipresent in San Francisco who were eking out their daily existence pan-handling on almost every street corner and relishing the harvest from neighborhood trash bins ... 

Then the reasons for so much crowding begin to dawn: 

There is not an endless supply of canned tuna in the pantry or clean water for the water dish; and the kitty litter does need to be tended; and safe surroundings, a warm bed and kitty treats and toys don’t simply fall out of the sky; and there’s always tomorrow to think about …

As for the street people, somebody has to provide the streets (and clean the streets) to draw the traffic and earn the money from which handouts are possible … and fill the dumpsters … and provide the public toilets … and pay the taxes … and staff the emergency rooms … and run the busses …

It makes one want to start crowding a little bit more! 

 

Crowd the line on SANITY

… on SOLVENCY
… on SUSTAINABILITY
… on LIFE MASTERY
… on TOTAL INTENTIONAL LIVING
… on DECENCY
… on A FUTURE WORTH LIVING
 

If not you … WHO?

If not now … WHEN?

 
Quartermaster