I never sailed with Stuart, though I'll always treasure the time our families ran in to each other on Nantucket and he promised the chance to join him one day.
When I went to visit Stuart and Karen at the beginning of May it seemed clear that promise might never be realized but now I have a different thought.
After spending time with Stuart and John Kimball I was letting myself out the door to head to work when Karen suggested that we go around back.
She wanted to show me Stuarts final masterpiece. It's a boat that shows the pride of craftsmanship that exudes in all his professional work. But there seemed to be an echo of love in this project that gave it a distinction.
Karen briefly lamented how the project was at once a passion and a distraction, one that might have been an escape from worry on the one hand and a slight guilty pleasure on the other.
That said, she wished that he'd been able to finish the work. Perhaps that may yet happen. Perhaps there is one amoung us, or two or three, who know much more about such things than I.....and if so.....I hope you find inspiration to finish the job that Stuart began.
I'll go for coffee, spend some money and keep you company....in return for a that long promised sailing date.
Best,
Steve Aveson
p.s. Continuing the nautical tribute, here is an adaptation of Henry Van Dykes "Immortality"
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!'
Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'There she goes!' there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts 'Here she comes!'"
~ by Henry Van Dyke ~
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1 comment:
Thank you, Steven. I love the idea of a group of guys putting their heads, hands, and hearts together to finish the boat. It will get done, somehow, and we will all sail it, someday.
Also, I have been looking for "Immortality", as I had recently read it and wanted to re-read it. It helps me each time I read it, as I truly believe, especially after my experience with him on the 9th of May, that his spirit is somewhere else now, with others.
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