I love this saying, ships that pass in the night. This saying makes my creative side go wild. Ships, as a word, will always have a romantic tone. pass in the night is darkly mysterious. and so i love this saying.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote...Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
Longfellow was a poet and translator from the 1800's. I don't know much of his work, i've read some of his work, like Paul Revere's Ride and Evangeline. But never thought much about him. Cool name for sure. But the paragraph above is an excellent paragraph. I was going to write about what the phrase ships that pass in the night meant, but i don't think it needs anymore tinkering with.
But the analytical side of me must press on through this thought. Ships that pass in the night, as a phrase, not a quote, could be a cautionary tale. What if we are destined for something, yet the opportunity blows across our bow leaving only a faint scent of what might have been? Missed, an opportunity to fulfill a destiny once headed straight for us. What if this is totally about my life? I'm so A.D.D., I could easily see myself missing the boat, so to speak, missing an opportunity that should've been mine. How would I ever know what i'd missed? Would it be better not to know? How would I handle knowing that i'd missed the chance of a lifetime somewhere out there? The sea is vast, i might never ever sail past that opportunity again. But maybe the journey is what brought me there, in the night, sailing that ship. Maybe I was a ship, searching for a port. And if that port eluded me forever, wouldn't I just keep searching? I would learn from my travels and document the adventures i'd had. Maybe I'm supposed to be that ship in the night. Maybe if I pass one opportunity in the night, I would come to find a greater one. And maybe if I never found the port i was looking for, then the journey would become my destination, my destiny. Maybe there are discoverers and then there are searchers. Maybe I'm meant to be a searcher my whole life. Looking for the truth, searching for answers, developing theories about life and death and love. Maybe my port is the sea forever. Maybe thats my destiny.
So maybe its a cautionary tale if you are not an adventurer or a searcher. But if you are one of those, then perhaps ships that pass in the night are meant to do just that. And the life that we live is one day at a time, one observation at a time, one wave at a time. And maybe its not about what we missed on the way, rather about what we found on our search. I like that. searchers we shall be.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote...Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
Longfellow was a poet and translator from the 1800's. I don't know much of his work, i've read some of his work, like Paul Revere's Ride and Evangeline. But never thought much about him. Cool name for sure. But the paragraph above is an excellent paragraph. I was going to write about what the phrase ships that pass in the night meant, but i don't think it needs anymore tinkering with.
But the analytical side of me must press on through this thought. Ships that pass in the night, as a phrase, not a quote, could be a cautionary tale. What if we are destined for something, yet the opportunity blows across our bow leaving only a faint scent of what might have been? Missed, an opportunity to fulfill a destiny once headed straight for us. What if this is totally about my life? I'm so A.D.D., I could easily see myself missing the boat, so to speak, missing an opportunity that should've been mine. How would I ever know what i'd missed? Would it be better not to know? How would I handle knowing that i'd missed the chance of a lifetime somewhere out there? The sea is vast, i might never ever sail past that opportunity again. But maybe the journey is what brought me there, in the night, sailing that ship. Maybe I was a ship, searching for a port. And if that port eluded me forever, wouldn't I just keep searching? I would learn from my travels and document the adventures i'd had. Maybe I'm supposed to be that ship in the night. Maybe if I pass one opportunity in the night, I would come to find a greater one. And maybe if I never found the port i was looking for, then the journey would become my destination, my destiny. Maybe there are discoverers and then there are searchers. Maybe I'm meant to be a searcher my whole life. Looking for the truth, searching for answers, developing theories about life and death and love. Maybe my port is the sea forever. Maybe thats my destiny.
So maybe its a cautionary tale if you are not an adventurer or a searcher. But if you are one of those, then perhaps ships that pass in the night are meant to do just that. And the life that we live is one day at a time, one observation at a time, one wave at a time. And maybe its not about what we missed on the way, rather about what we found on our search. I like that. searchers we shall be.
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