The way finders

We’re on a secret NASA mission. So secret it’s disclosed on this stack. We see tiny figures bouncing around in the distance. They are scientists. Astronauts. No, they’re movie stars.

What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit. For starters, straps connecting the astronauts to their spacecraft are severed so — in seconds — they’re not connected to anything at all. Been there. Done that.

This brings us to Polynesian way finders, who are about as un-Hollywood as you can get. They are ancient master navigators of what we now call Polynesia and Australia.

They ongoingly crossed the Pacific Ocean using instrument-free techniques — reading stars, ocean swells, cloud formations and flight paths of birds. They knew they were nearing land when they noted changes in the color of water. And in its phosphorescence, too.

There are many politically correct terms for stealing countries and continents, such as “colonized peacefully,” or “occupied” as if the land were not already loved and lived on before it was plundered. The truth is explorers credited with discovering the worlds often destroyed the worlds they discovered. And the people who lived there for thousands of years.

This brings us to blowing smoke. Given the recent proliferation of forest fires, it’s no longer a question of whether there will be smoke in the air, just which way the wind will blow.

I’m an ocean. I’m a desert. I’m a drought. I’m a tidal wave. I’m a shuffle. I’m a shuttle. I’m a sprint. I’m an unexpected curve ball. No, I’m the curve. I’m the ball. Then I’m having trouble breathing. Racing, bracing, spacing out. Knowing nothing when the floor falls out. As it now tends to do.

How does one stay more or less healthy? You know how some docs prescribe “Take two before breakfast” or something like that. Well, my prescription for myself might be, “Write before breakfast.” The frame, the corners, the curves. The second prescription might be, “Write before lunch and before dinner.” The frame, the corner, the curves, again. And so I do.

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