Moby Dick

"I could have greeted my dear Pacific with uncounted thanks, for now the long supplication of my youth was answered; that serene ocean rolled eastwards from me a thousand leagues of blue.

There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John. And meet it is, that over these sea- pastures, wide-rolling watery prairies and Potters' Fields of all four continents, the waves should rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly; for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still; tossing like slumberers in their beds; the ever-rolling waves but made so by their restlessness.

. . .

Thus this mysterious, divine Pacific zones the world's whole bulk about; makes all coasts one bay to it; seems the tide-beating heart of earth."

I have finished it. All 624 pages. And (spoiler alert) except for the whole sinking in the Pacific aspect, I must agree with this passage. Good old Pacific. I went sailing on the Hudson yesterday with my English class, and it was very grey and sad out. It was cool to see Manhattan from that point of view though. We sailed past Columbia and we saw the copper roofs. On the other side was lovely New Jersey with lots of high rises. As we went north there were trees though (on the Jersey side), fully decked in autumn colors. Very pretty. It rained a lot yesterday and Friday and (thank god) there is indeed a clean feeling in the air. It is gorgeous out today, which is actually a bit infuriating since I was outside for ALL of yesterday and I have to work today.