Monday, June 05, 2006
The Simple Guide For Surviving Storms.
You are a boat. No, not just any other puny rowboat, but a tall, proud ship, with an arcing bow that slices the waves of life like knife through butter, leaving an instantly recognisable wake behind, as if the ocean is forever carved with your journey.
Everything's been calm seas and wonderful sunny. Your decks are scrubbed clean, your prow polished a gleaming white, your passengers having nightly parties and having a blast..
Suddenly.. in the middle of the Atlantic, you run into an iceberg field! Jagged peaks only give slight hint of the beasts that lie invisible below the waves. You stare in shock as storm clouds gather, and soon the glass surface of the ocean is an angry, heaving mass, and your captain fights to keep you on course, as the waves threaten to tear you apart..
Nature contacts steel, and a sickening tear resounds through the cabins. You are horrified as water floods into your heart. Already your bow is drooping, a far cry from its former glory, and the water threatens to swallow you whole..
Engineers race around, braving the waves to asses damage, and the report is negative to the extreme. All signs say that abandonment is compulsory.. You face the threat of loneliness, every ship's nightmare becoming reality for you..
But no, you do not give up.. The turbines are intact, and you coax them to full power. If the storm's not going to go away, you are.
It works, and you emerge out of the dark, limping from critical damage.. Not knowing what to do, you push ahead, carrying every one of your passengers safe and sound, giving them some sanctuary in the rigid steel of your decks, as if promising to take them to a better place..
But you're so, so scared.. You don't know what could happen.. The flood has stopped, but the damage has been done. You limp through the waves, and they seem to mock you. "Where is your pride?", they laugh..
But shortly on the horizon, land appears, and the bright lights of the dock beckons, telling you you're home, you're home..
And as you enter calm waters once more, you thank God for giving you the strength to sail through a storm, knowing that damage can always be repaired, and that the next storm is lurking not very far away..
jOhn thought at 1:46 AM