A connection to a Journal entry can be made here....
I remember a story about a ship wreck on one of the Great Lakes.
It was a cold November night on Lake Superior. An old schooner had run aground near a lighthouse. For what-ever reason, it was the light-house keepers wife that came to the rescue.
The ships crew was clinging to the freezing rigging, afraid to jump into the boiling water though clearly [with great effort] each man could, swim to shore.
The gal on the beach kept hollering, "swim!- I'll pull you out but SWIM..."
Sadly I don't remember the details of all of the woman?s actions, nor how many men took the risk and swam to shore and a warm fire. The story is written up in "Shipwrecks and Survivals of the Great Lakes" by William Ratigan I think, and I'm too lazy to look for it.
Point is at times I think we're all a bit like that. Our perception is that we're frozen to the only framework or rigging that we know-pain and fear prevent us from crossing a boiling stretch of undefined emotions and truth. Still, beyond the murk is success and a warm fire.
-Maybe we gotta SWIM...
There's a fire on the beach, SWIM!
There's a life-belt 'round your middle-it's not perfect but it'll help Now, SWIM!
Though your skin is chafed and raw, SWIM....
Start by letting just one finger go, SWIM....
There's no one that can do that for you, SWIM....
Bone-weary, and full of hate, for the bitch of a ship that she was and tossed you to your,
Fate now, SWIM Damn You!
Hair frozen to your scalp, mind numbed by the wicked storms fury, SWIM!
There's a long way to shore, but the woman's done all she could and more, SWIM!
You're lookin' to the past and all you think you've lost-but it's not YET gone so, SWIM!
For the mornings you, 'an those you've not-yet-met,
NEED to see? SWIM!
There's no guarantee that life will be better, but at least you'll be ALIVE now, SWIM!
Are you going to expect someone else to do the EFFORT? Le'go the lines now, SWIM!
You learned the strokes as a child, the simple one is slow-NO MATTER! SWIM!
See the others that were on the mast beside you, now crushed below it's weight as it snapped,
NOW SWIM!
Only one more hand needs to break free, SWIM!
...Or succumb to the fear, and pain, and weariness inside, and die within sight of
Salvation, with the rotten bitch of a hulk that got you here...
SWIM or die...
"Giving up, in a hundred different manifestations can be deadly.
It is wise to remember that..."
-Tom Weese...
Copyright 3 Jan 1997 by the Author. No publication without written permission of the author...
A connection to a Journal entry can be made here....