While I was waiting for the bus a woman came by handing out religious leaflets. I took one and thanked her politely; she told me Jesus loves me.

I didn’t really look at the pamphlet — it was about accepting Jesus as my savior and redeeming my sins and so on — but I noticed on the back there were a couple of interesting things. First it said ‘ALL TRACTS FREE AS THE LORD PROVIDES,’ which I take to mean that the Lord’s followers find it in their hearts and purses to fund the organization which prints them, but perhaps the pamphlets simply materialize in piles in Church basements.

Second, it was labeled ‘tract 118,’ and if you do accept Christ, you are invited to mail the pamphlet with your comments back to them. I wonder how they use this. Market research into which tracts are successful in coonversion? Or if I sent back, would they keep my return address for their own purposes, and I’d suddenly be on a list for Christian junk mail, as well as credit card offers?

I remembered that I was keeping track of what I’ve been reading. As best I can recall, this summer I’ve finished reading the following:
1 The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts – Louis de Bernieres – which, taking place in a fictionalized Latin American country, gives a summary of the general pattern of politics in many Latin American countries (as best I understand Latin America, which admittedly is not well), and is also engaging and hilarious
2 Going Alone: Women’s Adventures in the Wild – Ed. Susan Fox Rogers – on this book I have already written
3 The Sea Around Us – Rachel Carson – Carson wrote Silent Spring about DDT. This is her take on Oceanography, circa 1955
4 Elizabeth Costello – JM Coetzee – about Coetzee I am still thinking

Then, of course, I am in the middle of a number of books:
1 Why We Get Sick, The New Science of Darwinian Medicine – Randolph M. Nesse, M.D., and George C. Williams, Ph.D. – I have been most of the way through this book for a year, but to be fair for eight months it was in Alaska while I was not
2 Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut
3 Archy and Mehitabel – Don Marquis
4 A Story Like the Wind – Laurens Van der Post
5 Rowing to Latitude – Jill Fredston – I have read this book several times, and am perpetually in the middle of it. It doesn’t matter where I start, I know what is going on and I am interested in what she will do next.

6 The Fundamentals of Oceanography – I’ve been stuck on salts in chapter five since June; I may need to just return it to the library and come back to it in the winter, when there is more time for literary pursuits.

In the time when I am sleep but failing to go to sleep, I have found a poet named Nikki Giovanni, and I will read more of her poetry later. For now, let me put up this poem which is a pretty accurate description of my working life so far, in its post-collegiate state.

Choices

when i can’t express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that’s why mankind
alone among the mammals
learns to cry

I took a three day weekend for a trip to Canada, on a kayaking trip organized by one of Alex’s friends. Basically, it was awesome. We drove up Friday morning, and spent the day in Vancouver. Had dinner in Chinatown, and looked at the Chinese menu after we’d ordered from the you-guys-are-so-obviously-white menu. Didn’t know you could add fried jellyfish to your meal… Met up with a friend of Alex’s friend, who had some interesting stories to tell about being a firefighter in BC and the Yukon.

In the morning we drove to Deep Cove, got kayaks and headed up Indian Arm. Indian Arm is a fjord, with mostly cliff walls coming down (few places to beach and have lunch, a little less fortunately), and lots of harbor seals hanging around.

We paddled up to Granite Falls, about 12 miles up. When we got there the waterfall didn’t have a lot of water, but it did have a lot of tents already set up, and power boats, one of which was blasting music with some serious bass. So we turned around and went back down to a campsite we had passed earlier, which we had to ourselves, and which got morning sun, being on the west side.

After dinner, every separate party pulled out a different sort of chocolate bar they had brought to share with the group, and a bottle of port wine was produced as well. We watched the moon come up, and the stars come out, and counted sattelites passing overhead. The water was still, and everything was serene.

In the morning, no one woke up until eightish, so we didn’t get the early start we had hoped for, but no one seemed to mind particularly. The day breeze kicked up, but we were heading into it, so the farther along we got, the less fetch it had to build any water up, and it provided a good excuse to hug the coastline and watch for seals, which we saw quite a few of. One rock I passed had three seals – a mama and pup, and a third who jumped in the water to join a fourth as I came up.

I decided I’d like to be a seal. My daily itinerary would include sleeping on a rock in the sun, eating fish, hanging out on a sunny rock, floating around, watching kayaks, sleeping on a rock in the sun, and maybe a little playing with other seals.

When we got back to civilization, I asked Alex, mainly in jest, to carry me back to the car. Since he has previously refused to carry me up mountains when we’re hiking, or tow me when we biking to Portland, or even to tow me when we were kayaking back, I was quite surprised when he said, ‘Okay,’ and picked me up. Several yards later I realized he was heading back towards the beach rather than the parking lot. He claimed that since I had said I was a seal, he was just trying to return me to my natural habitat.

On the way back to the US, we stopped for some duty free shopping. In lieu of liquor, I bought a litre of maple syrup. We got a pop quiz in the third degree by a border guard, but they let us back in eventually. The second car apparently was asked if they were bringing any Cubans — Cuban cigars, that is.

Now it’s back to work. I was worried that Elliott Bay would seem overly industrialized and ugly by comparison, but it is still a nice body of water. Still, I’d rather be a seal in a fjord somewhere…