He had no mysticism about turtles although he had gone in turtle boats for many years. He was sorry for them all, even the great trunk backs that were as long as the skiff and weighed a ton. Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs. He ate the white eggs to give himself strength. He ate them all through May to be strong in September and October for the truly big fish.
He also drank a cup of shark liver oil each day from the big drum in the shack where many of the fishermen kept their gear. It was there for all fishermen who wanted it. Most fishermen hated the taste. But it was no worse than getting up at the hours that they rose and it was very good against all colds and grippes and it was good for the eyes.
The image of that beating turtle heart sticks with me. Even after the turtle is butchered, the heart keeps beating, as if it doesn't know to stop living and loving. It's an amazing metaphor for endurance in the face of great adversity.
I was speaking with a good friend this past weekend about Ernest Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea. My friend is a world-class jazz pianist. Has toured throughout the United States and abroad. Played with some of the great jazz musicians of the twentieth century.
Our conversation was about the way some people dismiss Hemingway because of his penchant for treating his wives abominably. For going on safari in Africa and killing big game--lions, rhinos, and elephants, among others. I believe the current term being flung around is "toxic masculinity."
Of course, it's easy to take people out of their cultural contexts and pass judgement on them. Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder. Abraham Lincoln approved the mass execution of 38 Dakota Sioux warriors. Jefferson also wrote the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln freed also slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation.
Human beings are flawed individuals, capable of amazing acts of selflessness and terrible acts of brutality. Jefferson and Lincoln made mistakes. Did things that, today, seem unconscionable. Hemingway was flawed. A terrible husband. Not much better of a father. Yet, nobody can deny that he wrote some of the greatest books of the past 120-some years.
The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway at the height of his powers. And the book is a metaphor for the artistic life. My friend pointed this out to me. Here's Santiago, the greatest fisherman of his village. Even after almost three months without catching anything, he still heads out in his boat day after day.
And then he catches the biggest fish of his life. He doesn't stand a chance of bringing the fish home. After his years on the sea, Santiago knows sharks will tear the fish apart. Leave only bones and a few scraps of flesh on his greatest prize. Yet, he still fights the sharks, even though he will lose. He fights because that's who he is.
And that's what any artist is. A turtle heart beating until it can't anymore. A musician chasing the perfect song. A statesman creating a declaration of freedom and human rights. A fisherman landing the catch of his life. A novelist penning his greatest book. Regardless of the hungry sharks.
Saint Marty is a poet hunting for his greatest poem.
No comments:
Post a Comment