Tim’s Note:
In Carole’s previous “Alaska Letter 9” she wrote to her sister Mary, “I’m thinking about getting my own boat, and fishing it next summer.”
With the passing of time Carole finds herself pondering whether that is such a good idea. Doesn’t each of us at one time or another ask the question that the poet Mary Oliver wrote in a poem, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?”
HOW DO I LIVE MY LIFE?
AUTHOR - CAROLE GIBB
Dear Mary,
Nix the boat idea.
First, I hate danger. Second, it’s a big outlay of cash, when I can least afford it. Oh, and also, there’s how I feel about engines. They’re hideous things. I believe they should be kept out of sight, under a hood. What was I thinking?
It is weird, sis, how this island life is affecting me. You know when you get in a new relationship? You get swept up, and so affected your judgment goes to hell? You drive too fast and get tickets; you eat strange things; you say whatever comes to mind; you forget you have a job, bills, a cat. That’s how being here feels to me.
So it might be wise to ask: Is this a good relationship or a bad one?
I don’t know the answer to this question. I thought the life here was helping me gain perspective, but what if I’m losing it, instead? Where is this love affair headed? Do I need to be rescued, or is this how it feels to be rescued?
Argh, this is way too much work. Why can’t I just have a conventional life and be satisfied with that?
I am such a pain in my own ass, sometimes.
Carole
A “CONVENTIONAL” LIFE
“Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”
Mary Oliver
“… to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.”
Mary Oliver
A LIFE IN ALASKA’S OUTBACK
Thank you for spending another few minutes in Alaska’s outback with Carole. Do plan on returning with me to Carole’s “Alaska Letters 11 & 12”. She just might surprise with what she intends to do with her “wild and precious life.”
Tim
CREDIT:
Writer: Carole Gibb
Photographer: Carole Gib, Hans Weinberg & Public Domain
Graphic Designer: Tim Olson
Editors: Lorelie & Tim Olson
To read Carole’s LETTERS FROM ALASKA 9 – click here
