The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I remember in high school we had to read ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‘ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. At the time I guess it spoke to me because I remember it all these years later, but then I just thought that it was pretty cool.

I was chatting with my wife tonight about my anchor analogy and really expanded on it. In case you didn’t read my blog entry “Sweet dreams and a restful sleep” I had said that I felt like I cut a weight loose off of me, almost like an anchor. The anchor analogy really works well, because when you drop anchor you’re not instantly stopped. Sometimes it takes a while for that anchor (the emotional trauma I experienced in childhood) to even reach the sea floor. When it does there’s gonna be a hell of a jolt, (I drew into myself and quit trusting others), then that anchor is gonna skip up off the bottom and come crashing back down (which would be like ups and downs in attitude and depression). Each time that anchor touches down it’s going to slow the ship (my life) down a bit more until nothing is moving. That’s when I got the chills. I remembered a line from that poem.

Day after day, day after day, / We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where, / And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.

At the time of course I didn’t know what drew me to that so much, but I get it now. I felt like a ship that had been stopped, and I was dying of thirst. Now I think I like the poem a lot more. Maybe you’ll enjoy it as well!