“With heart and hand I pledge you while I load my gun again, you will never be forgotten or the enemy forgiven, my good comrade.”
~ A.S.L.
“Be Good and You Will Be Lonesome.” ~ Caption for the author’s photograph on shipboard via Following The Equator.
I sit looking at the translucent contrails and the cumulonimbus clouds creating rainbows above the herd in mid September 2014. I do not see any flags on the masses of metal as they go about their so called living. Patriotism is also a commercial business nowadays. I too was in the ocean 9 years ago on this day – doing what I love – riding hurricane swells. There are those on this day who fell at the hands of people who believe in a “better god”. That being said Hail to John Hoekman who made it out of the north tower from the 87 floor after saving several.
True camaraderie is becoming a lost entity. I still have what I term “my garbage bag crew” – those few men of whom without question I could call to bring “garbage bags” to clean up a mess (which also usually involve towels and other methods of disinfecting) yet those are tales of for another time or space.
One day Sven and I were shooting some pool. Gentlemen’s bet if memory serves correct. We were discussing “Following The Equator.” by Mark Twain. He said my favorite part of the book is the first page – “Be good and you will be lonesome.” We ended up talking for a couple of hours about what it truly means to be a “good man”. Most often than not a “being a good man” is not necessarily being “good” as it pertains to the so called social norms of society. Jimmy Buffet wrote a song entitled “That is what living is to Me.” Whilst we were discussing the book – out of suspicious coincidence said song came up on the playlist set to random play. He started screaming THIS – THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT! WHY CANT ANYONE SEE IT? I said some are not meant to and we are usually dragged down by this stratification. I said man some just arent, that is all it is – born not made.”
Jimmy Buffet starts off the song by discussing he wrote the song based on the first page of the book.
“Book good and you will be lonesome.
Be Lonesome and you will be free,
Live a lie and you will to regret it.
Thats what living is to me.” ~ J.B.
Your scars imprison and create you. Dead pirates tell no tales. One less garbage bag in the collection.
On this day we lost a husband, father, waterman and I lost one of my tribe and comrades Steven Swenson.
I will never forget.
Listen.