I read this story about a man who has been sailing the seven seas for the last thirteen years on the same ship. He hasn't gone ashore in ages and these days he is just about blind but still he sails. He has settled into a routine. That was where I heard the distant echo of another man at sea in eternity as he fled from his nemesis.. It was a good story and yes, the two men in the story settled into a routine. On the gripping hand, one of them had died over a hundred thousand years earlier.
Fiction is fairly rich in stories of the man who sailed forever. It includes the stories by Larry Niven and The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson and any number of other stories that probably had their start before time was recorded but in my case started with the The Man Without a Country by Everett Hale.
I saw the stories about the giant liner that one can buy passage on to sail on forever about 14 years ago. A few years ago I read the zombie apocalypse by Ringo and it didn't seem like a good deal to me. Then too, I spent quite a bit of my own time at sea.
Mind you, I don't think it is a bad way to spend time. I certainly enjoyed that life.
2 comments:
My wife and I have enjoyed the few cruises we've taken far more than I enjoyed my two years as an enlisted snipe on the Forrestal.
Oddly, I happened to read the article about the older gent who lives on the cruise ship and the part about his failing vision confirmed my belief that sometimes waiting is the wrong choice.
Good post.
Time is something I took to heart when I was about 25. I decided not to grow old and do the things I always wanted to. I kind of said screw it, and scarf a dime or some other latin words I forget that have diem in them.
I don't and never had a 'bucket list'. As the world evolves I am glad I saw it before nations became swamps and dust bins and loonie bins. It was pretty cool to see the England out of fiction, Egypt out of history and places you wouldn't spend a dime to see if left to your own devices.
Post a Comment