Ship
When the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between) And the steward falls
into the soup tureen …
Why, then you will know (if you haven’t guessed) You’re “Fifty north
and forty west!”
by Rudyard Kipling--The Just-So Stories
How the Whale Got It's Throat.
But that of course does not begin to end the tales of sails and ships
and gales. Nor does it broach even remotely as to why I bring a ship
into an ezine which devotes itself exclusively to jewelry … except
of course for a myth or two … or some magical addendums whose
relevances are so intrinsically interwoven with jewelry and its
associated trades … that to leave them out would be a travesty.
So what does a ship have to do with jewelry, Benjamin? Oh pray do
tell us that why dontcha? Does it have to do with the fact that
symbolically speaking the earth itself is considered to be a ship
floating on a primordial cosmic ocean? Does it have to do with the
absolute fact that the sun and the moon are carried daily and
nightly through the skies in celestial ships? Or is it perhaps
because once, long ago, Isis cried to the skies to stop the Ship of a
Million Years in order that Toth may disembark and cure her son?
Does it have to do with any of these things, Benjamin?
Well … yes … and no. For after all … the myths of ships and
boats are endless … and who is to say if a myth did or did not
inspire our jeweler to create his multi-sailed ship riding the crest
of a diamond wave? Who is to say if our jeweler did or did not once
glimpse Charon ferrying the dead to the Underworld in a ship or
boat. Who is to say if our jeweler was or was not the descendent of
a sailor who once rode with Jason on the great ship Argo in search
of a Golden Fleece. Certainly not I dear reader … for I doth not
know.
What I doth know however … is that I have an image of a
magnificent ship astride a diamond wave … sailing to … where I
doth not know. What I also doth not know is what material the ship
is made of … who made it … when it was made … why it was made
… or anything else for that matter. All I have is an image … ah
… but what a great image it is.
Let us consider it a bejeweled ghost ship traveling the eons of time
… endlessly looking through the mists for a jeweled port where it
can once and for all rest its weary hull. Let us wish it luck in its
quest … and should it have a crew working its precious metal decks
… let us wish them well too.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits Graphics … and then click on the link that says: Ship …
where you will see a graphic of our mysterious vessel traveling the
oceans of the earth into eternity.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week. Benjamin Mark
-- http://www.tyler-adam.com --