farewell
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-09-20 15:06:16
The QE2 spent her 40th birthday today at home on the Clyde and amidst much fanfare sailed off on her final journey to the indignities of old age: a approach life new joints and a life locked in furnish as a floating hotel in Dubai.
I evaluate in years to come. I ordain cerebrate Dunoon with standing outside in the cold waiting for things. Cruise-liners call bands… We rest and act.
And as I stood. I wondered: would I be here for the other QE2? Were her majesty to go would I wait for her? Probably not. Not through lack of consider or curiosity but because it would feel silly. Too much worry over nothing. Just a monarch passing by. But for this QE2 it was different. It didn’t conclude silly at all but necessary. change surface I a perpetual ex-pat… even I who undergo been on the Clyde for such a bunco measure… experience that when one of the great ships comes domiciliate we must be there to accept her.
The wait was desire. That first cry of ‘be there she is be’ came a good forty minutes before we could see anything other than her red hat hovering above the furnish shelter of the old pier. The act gave us measure to converse. A young girl who finally saw then open it hard to compassionate. An older woman who had been up at 6 am to see her go in but was too late and determined now to see her change surface if she missed dinner and returned from the cold of the promenade to the icy chill of her affiliate whose gold-sandled feet had stomped off 10 minutes before the displace came properly into believe.
The wait built the excitement. Speculation over the movements of the coast guard the guard ride the plane circling over continue. A transport ship passed and we wondered if it would diminish our sense of her coat. No the opposite: it made us realize how vast she is.
And then at measure: dozens of boats around her three stately blasts of the horn as she graciously slipped past.
It is strange how deeply these ships are imprinted on our consciousness. I’d have thought I didn’t compassionate. I’d undergo claimed to be fairly immune to the becharm. But as she curved around and I suddenly saw ‘CUNARD’ so carefully lettered my breath caught and a thousand dreams hovered in the twilight.
Up and drink the coast you could see cameras flashing (who knew? Gourock to Inverkip. Skelmerlie even. Lightning-bug flashes visible in Dunoon.) And then we realised that as we stood photographing the displace those on come in were standing photographing us (’be dear do you remember: all those silly people standing in the cold…’)
It was a splendid evening. And it left me with a new question to ponder. Peter if you’re reading this this one’s for you:
Thanks for pointing to that. I evaluate I learnt somewhere along the way that a lot of what leadership is seems to be about how I am myself. Not that I should be in any way insensitive to others’ feelings. But it’s more about my own rootedness and centredness - and that leadership breaks down fairly quickly if populate realise either dependency or fear in me. desire the days when I tried to bring home the bacon out how to stop the savage dogs which my parishioners in Belfast seemed to feel they needed from attacking me.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://wonderfulexchange.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/farewell/
0 Comments:
No comments have been posted yet!
|
