The Daily Dick: Musings on the Relevance of Moby-Dick Today
"The most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward." I like the practical Melville. In many ways this line just seems easy - courage is when you do something having taken into account all the dangers and weighed that against the benefits. Useful courage is a sound decision. Most of us like to think we fall into that category. However there are
The Daily Dick: Musings on the Relevance of Moby-Dick Today
"Better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety!" This line, indeed this entire chapter, never fails to take me in. Melville has given us a tall character, Bulkington, and then takes him away. Bulkington arrives in New Bedford as a possible hero, then dies a few minutes into the voyage. Why? Sweet metaphors, that's why! The howling infinite is the active - the sea, the journey, the quest for truth or a whale
The Daily Dick: Musings on the Relevance of Moby-Dick Today
"For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draft—nay, but the draft of a draft. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!" Since it is Mother's Day, I am leaving a quote I love here. I believe in the essence of this quote. Once a thing is finished, we often stop thinking about it. Let everything we do be a draft - an incomplete p
The Daily Dick: Musings on the Relevance of Moby-Dick Today
"And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young man, it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad one." Of course the moody captain is Ahab and this line will prove to be arguable within the context of the novel, yet there is more than a hint of truth in it. Often we are dazzled by personality. The brash, the bold, and the brazen can capture audiences, make promises, and seem like the 'winners' in the world. Yet the people who can hold both hap
The Daily Dick: Musings on the Relevance of Moby-Dick Today
"In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers." This passage got to me today. Because some folks can pay for anything, they are capable of anything. We actually live in a world where leaders can say anything, do anything, tell us the sky is orange and then say it was fake news, and because those leaders are backed by money, nothing much happens. Meanwhile those who try to t
