IT IS THE MERCY

Hello.

As I've expressed in this forum previously, I love scary things.  The dad-blang problem with loving a good scare is that one becomes desensitized to ghouls and ghosts and zombies and the like.  Much to my chagrin, I don't get scared much any more.

Two nights ago, I couldn't sleep.  I was freaked the fuck out.  I mean, afraid to close my eyes because of the insanity that might seep into my dreams.  Afraid that I'd wake up to a world ripped free of the moorings of the sane.  All thanks to a book about sailing.

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is a detailed journalistic account of a 1969 solo circumnavigation of the globe.  A race of unprecedented difficulty, in which participants would be in almost complete isolation for the better part of a year.  In a sailboat.  Going around the world.

Crazy enough already, jah?  But when the action focuses on Donald Crowhurst...shit gets crazy.  Crowhurst is a remarkable figure, a man who, through his own sheer will and imagination, believes he can win the race.  He is a relatively inexperienced sailor, and is in no way prepared to make the journey.  But he plunges headlong into the race, defying logic and safety.  He seeks glory...Glory...MERCY.

Cryptic perhaps?  Yes.  But to divulge more about this story is to rob you of the terror of this tale.  Crowhurst is under my skin...I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this story for years to come.  I can't think of the last time I felt altered by a book.  This rocked my boat.  Keep your eyes peeled for future dispatches from the world of Crowhurst--inspiration is setting in.

I'll leave you with a quote from the man himself.

"I had a complete set of answers to the most difficult problems now facing mankind.  I had arrived in the cosmos while contemplating the navel of an ape..."

Rock.