Many years ago, I would
stand seaside and think of the ships out in the waters; far off in the distance
and I’d wonder where they were going and what cargo they may have aboard;
sugar, corn, shoes, blues. I did the same thing with freight trains. I’d run to
the crossing when I heard them coming. I’d hear their horns splitting the humid
summer air. I’d watch them pass and feel their mighty power; steel wheels
grinding and humming and singing a traveling tune. I often thought of hopping
aboard one of them and just riding out of town to someplace intriguing like
Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Tahiti where I could see all the woman Gauguin
painted in all their exotic wonderfulness. But then, ‘common sense’ kept me
from actually doing such a thing. Even to this day, I wonder about those
adventures and think that common sense might have actually been stupid. Maybe
common sense when it comes to some things is thought highly of by the
intelligentsia who actually don’t do anything but analyze.
