On Wednesday evening at 11:34 pm after the scenic cruising of Mount Kilauea we began steering a north east course for San Diego. The next day our position at noon was 20 degrees 32.7 N, 151 degrees 22.9 W, the weather was rough and the sky
was cloudy. The temperature was 25 C.
At 2:30 pm we were on deck enjoying the wind and waves. Ben fell asleep beside
me in his deck chair. I have been watching the ocean these past few days, thinking of how Baha'u'llah refers to the "Ocean of God's mercy". He also speaks of
waves and of billows. I wanted to look into this when I got home. Having read
this I've started to put together a compilation for myself of every place these
terms are mentioned so that I can understand the pattern of meaning. It's very
helpful to meditate on something real and the ways it has been used as a metaphor, because the meanings become much richer than through imagination alone.
This morning is The Captain's Luncheon for those with various levels of numbers
of days spent sailing with Holland America Line. Ben and I must have about 40 or 50. Some people have 300+ and there are even a very few with 700+ days. Those
people were recognized and received some kind of award.
The luncheon was enjoyable and table talk among eight strangers, different people from the ones at our dinner table was good. There were two people at the lunch table, unrelated to each other, who stayed behind to tell Ben and I that we should write a book together. They insisted upon it and tried to make us promise.
One was Mary Day from Chicago, Ill, and the other was a distinguished looking
American named Norman, (not the priest,) whose feet were frozen at the Battle of
the Bulge so that he has difficulty walking even now. He was interested that Ben was German and had experienced flight from the Russian advance, and hunger, but had been too young for war service. I guess Norman must have been about eight years older than Ben, so about 22 in that battle. Maybe even younger. What a
burden his damaged feet have been for him to bear for almost all of his life!
The Battle of the Bulge took place in Ardennes, France. It lasted from December
16, 1944 to January 28, 1945. Germany was clearly losing the war at that stage
, and this was Hitler's attempt to change things, get needed supplies and cause
the bond among the allied forces against him to weaken. Most of his top military thought it was an impossible plan. Lots of people who study such things think
now that by that time Hitler was mentally unstable. An assassination attempt had been made on his life and he trusted almost no one.
It was the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States participated. More than a million men fought in this battle including about 600,000 Germans, 500,000 American, and 55,000 British. at the end of the battle casualties were 81,000 U.S. with 19,000 killed, 1400 Brits with 200 killed, and 100,000
Germans killed, wounded or captured. 'Abdu'l-Baha said that the "Battle of Armageddon," said to be the last battle, to be followed by universal peace, began in 1914 and still going on, will soon end, in our own time. He said one of the reasons would be that people would not be able to bear the burden of the costs.
That's already starting to happen. Also that mothers in the nations would refuse to let their sons go to war after all the care and love it took to raise them
to be good men.
Holland America cruises attract many interesting and accomplished people. This
morning I talked with an artist/musician while sitting on deck. She told me her
hopes and dreams, unfolding now, as after this cruise she will accompany a world renowned singer as his accompanist.
I like these Americans, yet some of them are having difficulties and are pretty
confused. I see how greatly blessed Ben and I are in almost every way. No wonder I look at the ocean and contemplate God's endless oceans of forgiveness and loving kindness!
There are many accomplished and experienced people aboard, but you'd never know
it to look at them. Last night was the officers' "Black and White Ball." It was very formal. Ben and I didn't go. We went to listen to music by the excellent light classical trio (violin, bass and piano,) in The Explorers' Lounge. I looked and looked at my meaningful and beautiful ring as I listened. Finally I decided to read a novel I'd brought along. It was a very old novel from the beginning of the 1900's, "The Moonstone," by Wilkie Collins. I'm glad we began and
continue to sail with this excellent line. That was due to Ben's careful research, of course. :-))
As often happens at summer schools where there are courses and discussions, or at conferences with seminars; various connections begin to appear between pieces
of information from here and there until a distinct pattern starts to emerge. I
see some kind of a pattern emerging here on the ship, between the seminar courses, and the kinds of people with their stories, that we're getting to know.
Every afternoon it seems to become cloudy and cooler. I'm glad to be almost well and to be able to be on deck now. On our way over it was much too chilly, windy and rough. It's either much less rough, or I'm getting my sea legs and sea tummy.
Yesterday two or three people confided in me some very intimate details of their
lives, which people don't usually share. I don't remember this happening to me
before on other cruises. The first was one of our Lido deck waiters. Suddenly
, as he was making up my table for lunch, with no previous conversation to open
the subject, he began to tell me about how he came home from a trip, entered their bedroom, and found his wife in bed with another man. He quickly told the whole story through to present conditions of divorce and now trying for custody of
his children to be cared for by his mother, who found them in the street while his wife was away with her lover for three or four day. Later she came to his mother to try to collect them again. He is a wiry and determined looking little man and he beat up the other man. Later he trashed the man's office. It was right next to the police or army barracks where he has relatives, so he seems to have felt safe to do it because he's well-connected there. The wife and lover use
drugs together, he said.
The same evening our business professors tablemates Dan, and his wife Lora, in the absense of Joe and Lu, the other pair of our sixsome at dinner, suddenly began to confide the marital difficulties of Dan's sons. One married a lesbian by mistake. On the honeymoon they lived like brother and sister and then came home,
where they had the marriage annulled. That was after the small 28 person, but
spectacular in every detail, wedding, which the charming bride insisted upon. They think she just wanted a fancy white wedding. The son is very handsome, popular, well-educated and has a good job and now he also has a broken heart and needs to be encouraged to live his life again.
Dan's first wife, after their having had four children together, turned out to wish to be a lesbian. Dan and she divorced, and are still friends. When the former wife met the bride who turned out to be a lesbian, even she didn't suspect.
Another son's wife who had seemed to have seasonal affective disorder when they
lived in Alaska, suddenly announced to her husband that there was another man in
whose arms she found satisfaction and fulfillment that she had never found with
him. The husband was taken totally by surprise. I myself was surprised that they confided these things at length to us.
Lora herself is rather odd in saying that if/when Dan (who seems to be about twice her age) should die, she would be interested in marrying one or the other of
two of his three sons. Now I can't see how she can bring herself to say that so
openly before Dan. Also, wouldn't the law consider that to be incest? I asked
, and they didn't seem to know. Maybe to Dan she's like a daughter, but I don't
think so. I think he loves her. He courted her and gave her red roses. He proposed at a picnic overlooking a beautiful ocean view. From what he said he seems to have gotten her out of Birkenstocks (low, heavy sandals,) and probably long draggy skirts and big baggy sweaters too, and to have convinced her that she is beautiful and has a gorgeous figure, which she does. Like an hour-glass.
Ben awoke and left to go up to the Lido deck for some ice cream. I have been feeling very disinclined towards eating anything fat, so when he offered to bring
me some I didn't accept. It's just past three pm.
