Tears for a Sailor

Let's be honest.  They call it Deadliest Catch for a reason.  We tune in to episode after episode out of a disturbing human instinct to witness danger.  Like the impulse to gawk at a car accident on the side of the road, I cannot force myself to turn off Deadliest Catch.

Yet now that the show has lost one of its stars, somehow the danger seems more real and the risk does not seem as entertaining.  On the rare and unfortunate occasions when the fleet has experienced tragedy, Discovery Channel has handled it with grace and discretion.  I hope they will find a way to do so now as well.  Rest in Peace, Captain Phil.

 

 Crossing the Bar

Sunset and evening star
   And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
   When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
   Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
   Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
   And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
   When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
   The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
   When I have crossed the bar.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson