My Own Little Boat...

Hey, all. I know it's been a while, but Jeffy's been busy.

A few weeks ago, I was calmly minding my own business and checking blogs when I saw Christy's coracle post. That image -- Reepicheep in his coracle, drinking the sweet water of the Utter East -- hit the waters of my soul like Louie Anderson doing a cannonball. I let it in and waited for the waters to settle.

Then Judy followed up, talking about the rich imagery of risky obedience connected to that same Welsh invention. It caught my attention. I broke out my Esther DeWaal books and reread the sections that dealt with coracles. I let those words and images stew, but I still felt like there was something missing... Some of the ingredients were getting left out.

So, I googled it. I read the wikipedia entry and discovered that coracles are so light because they're usually animal hide (skins) stretched over a wooden framework. Doesn't sound particularly seaworthy, but they're easy for one person to carry. No rough portages here. I clicked over to images, and I found pictures of solitary people floating calmly, a photo of a group carrying their coracles from one canal to another, an image of five or six children clustered in their coracles and splashing one another with their oars. I found a society of welshmen that make their own coracles to preserve the tradition as the craft are vanishing from the rivers and moors. The story that caught me most was one of lower-class fishermen, too poor to afford anything but a coracle. They would fish in pairs, stringing a net between the two boats until they had something of a catch. At that point, they'd pull on the nets, drawing the tiny boats together so they could haul in the catch and share it between them.

What a lovely picture of the dance between solitude and community! I sat back and reflected on my life - on the places the winds have taken me, on the way I can now see that (no matter how choppy the waters) I was where I needed to be. I felt like my bones were a wooden framework on which my skin has been stretched to provide a perfect little vehicle for my soul to travel. Alone with God or together with others, floating in a quiet marsh or so far out to sea I don't remember the sight of land, this coracle has served me well.

Thus was born my mad scientist project. I've been thinking about something like this for years, and I finally felt like this was an appropriate framework for it. So I broke out my check card, fired up Dreamweaver, and created my own website. I'd like to invite you all to check out Coracle's Wake. I know it looks pretty shabby at the moment, but I made it from scratch and with love. I promise it will get better.

I'm learning. These waters are new to me, but they taste of sweetness and growth and a hint of fatigue. My email is changing, too. Be gentle, but even if you're not, you are very welcome.

Deo Gratias