AN ANTI-WAR LAMENTATION

by Ray Jason

       I am rowing home to my boat, which is anchored in a beautiful, isolated cove near Key West.  Suddenly, the solitude and peacefulness is shattered by the sound of two military jets shrieking back towards the nearby airbase.

As I cover my ears and look scornfully towards them, a sport fishing boat comes blasting out of the mangroves with 500 horsepower ensnared in its outboard motors.  I wonder to myself if the fish that they will catch in their $100,000 boat will taste any better than the one that I just speared from my little rowboat.

When they pass beside me and see me covering my ears, they holler over to me, “That’s the sound of freedom.”  I nod noncommittally.  For the remainder of the day my mind could not stop thinking about what I wish I could have said to them.  If only we could have shared a beer and some grilled fish and some open-mindedness, I would have tried to give them a different perspective on the true essence of that sound.

THE VAST PICTURE

by Ray Jason        

          I am lying on my back on the deck of my sailboat in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean.  It is night and the sky is plush with stars.  I am alone … and in voluntary exile from humanity – immersed in an elemental realm of sea and sky and wind and wave.

Such timeless immensity inspires reflection; and suddenly with shooting star swiftness, I realize that seeking to understand “The Big Picture” does not probe deeply enough.  Instead, we must try to comprehend “The Vast Picture.”