Port in a Storm
The small wooden and battered boat makes it's way along the shore along the horizon of more building storm clouds. The man in the boat awakens just as beleaguered as the Old Man in the Sea during his last battle. He grabs his oar and paddles towards the shoreline. This beach is not wholly unfamiliar as he has landed here before. Something was different, maybe even a little out of the norm.
The man was met by a shore master and an old man seeking access to the port. The shore master puts his hand up in a halting sign towards the man in the embattled boat. The old man in the boat near him is holding a fluffy, curly-haired white dog with black eyes as deep as the nearest black hole in the sky and the biggest smile a dog could have. It's pink tongue dangling sideways out of it's mouth.
"You may enter," The shore master nods to the old man with the dog. He turns to the man in the boat and tells him, "There is a reason why you cannot enter."
"But I am tired, hungry, and could use a few days rest," the man pleaded with the shore master.
On the shoreline, a woman comes into view dressed in bathing suit and sarong. She darts between the crowds of people dotted along the beach. She looks up, meets the boater's gaze, and waves.
"Look! She is beckoning to me!" he exclaims to the shoreman.
All of time stops and the woman's lips move but he cannot hear what she says. The wind carries her words to his ears several seconds later and this is what he hears,
"I wish you a happy and healthy journey. I had hoped we could remain near and dear to each other but you are bereft of the thing that humans need from each other, love. It is clear that you love yourself but have not learned the importance of self-sacrifice for the common good. Your misfortune is that you live in the past with which there is no escape. It saddens me to watch you play your life out this way and can no longer welcome it. What we did have was fire on fire, passion on passion, but it only lasts for so long. Good luck! For I am no longer a port for you continuing storms."
And with the flick of her hand, the ocean rumbled and carried him off to another land.
"You may enter," The shore master nods to the old man with the dog. He turns to the man in the boat and tells him, "There is a reason why you cannot enter."
"But I am tired, hungry, and could use a few days rest," the man pleaded with the shore master.
On the shoreline, a woman comes into view dressed in bathing suit and sarong. She darts between the crowds of people dotted along the beach. She looks up, meets the boater's gaze, and waves.
"Look! She is beckoning to me!" he exclaims to the shoreman.
All of time stops and the woman's lips move but he cannot hear what she says. The wind carries her words to his ears several seconds later and this is what he hears,
"I wish you a happy and healthy journey. I had hoped we could remain near and dear to each other but you are bereft of the thing that humans need from each other, love. It is clear that you love yourself but have not learned the importance of self-sacrifice for the common good. Your misfortune is that you live in the past with which there is no escape. It saddens me to watch you play your life out this way and can no longer welcome it. What we did have was fire on fire, passion on passion, but it only lasts for so long. Good luck! For I am no longer a port for you continuing storms."
And with the flick of her hand, the ocean rumbled and carried him off to another land.
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