Sail On And On

After many long years, during which humankind has turned itself inside out and coughed itself up, I have once again ventured out. Out into a turbulent world, and back into the safe harbor of French Letters, which has become my most reliable source of memories of the best of times, and also of the worst of times.

Ten days ago l set sail on a five and a half month world cruise. The voyage will take me the wide world over, with the exception of places that are currently at war or experiencing other political unrest to the extent that no one wants to insure a passenger ship in those waters. So even though I said wide world, it’s gotten a whole lot narrower in the past few months.

The itinerary may or may not look something like the map above. It’s a very odd sensation, knowing that I am on a journey to who-knows-exactly-where. On the itinerary used to be Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Quatar, Ecuador and Israel. They’ve all been replaced with destinations deemed to be safer, while the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and a bunch of Middle Eastern countries are still showing up on our go-to menu. I’m guessing that some or a lot of them will get scratched off, but my crystal ball is clouded. Places that have been safe one moment have been known to suddenly blow up. Less often, peace breaks out somewhere and the world heaves a collective sigh of relief.

I guess this uncertainty-riddled trip is has become a metaphor for my life in general. Perhaps is it for yours as well, because if there’s anything that recent events have taught us it’s that you just never know. It’s the oldest of platitudes, the deepest of truths.

The night before we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale this was my bedtime view, a final sleep on land. Tonight, and every night for the next 150 days, I won’t be able to predict what I’ll see before falling into an ocean-rocked sleep. Sleeping out on the ocean in calm waters is a lot like sleeping in a cradle. Silent and dreamless the night passes quickly, although as we just crossed the Equator yesterday the days pass equally fast. I’m still fighting my way through a ton of software changes that are making French Letters more complex to use than ever, so if things are looking a bit funky around here for the next little while please forgive my housekeeping. But I won’t forget about you, and will do my best to take you with me everywhere I go, wherever that may turn out to be.