Evanston: two weeks
Evanston: two weeks
Carol and I walked down to the lake this morning. Many trees are at the height of color, but those that turned early are bare. This is what the tree I photographed two weeks ago looks like now.
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When CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE struck something and pitch-poled in the South Pacific in 1980, resulting in my being adrift for two weeks and three hundred miles in a 9’ inflatable dinghy before reaching land, I wrote that life can change in the passing of a single wave, which later became the title of one of my books.
I have recently been reminded that this is the way life usually changes: quickly and with little warning.
It took me a long time to recover fully after sinking RESURGAM, more than a year, perhaps two; and for a while I took pleasure in simply being alive; but gradually and naturally I began to take life for granted. Recently I’ve realized anew how difficult it is to do something unusual in life, such as sailing alone around the world, and to cherish happiness, which is fragile and can be lost in an instant.
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I wonder if now when I say “Chicago”, people will say “Obama” rather than “Oprah.”
Wednesday, November 5, 2008