What could do both? The waters of the earth!
Morning errands took me to the little unincorporated village of Lake Leelanau yesterday, always a pleasant destination. After stops at the veterinarian’s office and feed store, I made a third at the south end of the Narrows, where one boat was putting in and one or two others passed the dock while I was there, and otherwise tranquility reigned. Why so quiet? Because it was Monday? Because rain threatened?
In one direction, the M-204 bridge and the winding Narrows beyond were visible, while looking the other way I could see the distant, bluish hills of the south lake. All lovely. My favorite views, though, were the nearest, the wind-in-the-willows, close-up scenes. These are waters to soothe the soul.
David and I spent a rainy evening on the front porch reading. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo was my book, and I couldn’t help calling out bulletins now and then. How can one resist when encountering a ringing line such as “La mer est le cimetiere du chateau d’if”? “The sea is the cemetery of the chateau d’If"! Ye gods and little fishes! What an incredible, horrifying, heart-stopping scene! And then I read on until I came to the treasure and had to stop, exhausted from all the excitement. What a story this would have been for Jane Austen's impressionable young heroine, Catherine Moreland!
3 comments:
I just finished Jerry Dennis's Living Great Lakes and found it similarly filled with peace and death. Those of us who love water may sometimes forget that it does not love us back. It gives us life, but it will take that life away with complete indifference.
Looking at my own page here, I see Claudia's ANATOMY OF A SHIPWRECK and think, "Yeah!" But isn't it true of most of nature (not our dogs, we hope) that it's indifferent to our continued survival? Sometimes I actually find that comforting, in an odd sort of way.
Gerry, that idea that water does not love us back is such an eye-opening concept. So obvious and yet...
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