A Sail to Great Island

Family Happiness

25 Family Happiness 1. Family happiness is never complete because they all go off in a van, my daughter driving like Mister Magoo, and I have to wonder if I have a family. At this very moment they could be sailing to heaven, the rock music they love blaring. Which is why—Tolstoy or not— marriage is never boring, why it’s like sailing, even the smooth motion deceptive, a balance of hellish forces. Make one stupid turn and see the fluid you were gliding in is really a storm. 2. I’m writing this on my front porch, out of danger, with nobody home, the whole hillside swept by wind, the pines nodding in place the way I used to see men swaying in synagogue, praying. The air is passing over my skin, some Windham Hill yuppie music is on the hi fi. Everything’s breezy, the music says. My bible lies by my side, The Complete Guide to Sailing, Cruising and Racing. I keep it next to my corn flakes and bananas each morning. Capsizing, it says, shows that you’re pushing the limits of your craft. I try to keep everything tinkling and jingling along like George Winston and his piano, as interesting as watching leaves rustle. 26 Should I lean right out of the boat and fight if it’s a strong breeze, say seven Beaufort, which is like a fierce scherzo by Beethoven, all ten fingers busy grabbing everything they can hold on to? 3. If all marriages are tragedies (because they end) how are we supposed to take a comic perspective, make life end in a marriage? The boats sail, like little white shark’s teeth, and I hear from the neighboring cottage: “I’ve come up with all the suggestions and nobody wants to do what I want to do. So now you make the suggestions.” Just another storm in the cottages while the sea is calm. ...