Here Be Dragons

2008-01-16

When someone is in love sometimes they love what you love just because *you* love it and they love *you*.

It�s like that with water for me. Fred came to me unable to swim and with a real fear of the water. Over the last year he�s climbed into boats, at first white knuckling the railings and looking like he might puke. Later he started to look like he enjoyed it during a fishing trip and last month I got him into a kayak and he LOVED it.

I knew he was making these efforts for me. He wanted to love the water because I loved the water and so much of my life revolves around it. He wants to be a part of me and the ocean and lakes and boats and fishing are a part of me. They have been since I was a little girl. I summered at the family cottage as a girl and I think my mother had to pull me out by the hair to get me to eat lunch. I HATED lunch because back then they believed you�d have a cramp and drown if you went into the water before an hour was up after eating. I remember sitting by the shore line watching the other kids play and bugging my Mom with, �Is it time yet?� over and over. I was a mermaid. I was a surfer. I was an underwater diver. I was a fisherman and turtle hunter.

So I am aware that his new found love for the water is because he loves me and I wished that he loved it for himself so that if I am ever gone he can still enjoy its playfulness and majesty. So that even if I am no longer with him we are still sharing and I am not just leading because one day it could stop once the rush of new found love exhausts itself and things settle back down and he becomes just Fred again.

I may be getting that wish. Fred is a ham radio operator and he has a radio that feeds location packets to the internet. You can watch him here:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=ka1cqd-12

The link has changed since I last posted it. So I�m in work the other day when it snowed. Fred had to travel much further into a storm than I would since I work and live on the coast. So I�m at work and I follow him on the internet as he takes his breaks throughout the day as he was working from home.

I smile .. He�s at the storm wall watching at Long Beach and from what I know from experience are that huge waves are smashing against the wall and spraying upwards of twenty feet on an average storm, and this is not an average storm. Then I watch him drive to the Manomet Point where he is next to the lobster pound and it�s a high point where the lobster men congregate in the morning in iffy weather to decide if they�re going out that day. It�s an incredible view that also overlooks a seal pullout. I see him go up there twice that day.

I got home and he didn�t mention it until I said that I�d seen him and then he shared some pictures he�d taken while there. He did it for himself. He wasn�t trying to impress me. He had no idea that I�d have the time to track him that day.

I think he is starting a love affair with the ocean. I am so very glad that it is becoming authentic in his heart because it is a beauty we can share and I am no longer leading a horse to water. This horse is thirsty! YAAY!

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