Night on the Boat with Angel and Gilbert

I love sleeping on a boat.  I imagine weightlessness in space would be even better. The world is a great water bed.  My dreams are fluid.  Last night I dreamed a little girl was teaching me to use IPAD2 showing me her family christmas pictures while friends roamed about a mansion. I was wearing a leather jacket and this fine wise oriental gentleman had brought me a writing case, in as much to say that nothing in life is stationary.
Meanwhile I was being woken on the hour by Angel, the cat, whose first night it was back on the boat. Angel had to spend a while ashore while the hatches and windows were being repaired. She'd have got in the way of work with her coming and going.
She loves the boat too.  We've sailed thousands of miles together.  When Gilbert, by 'monkeydog', climbed into bed, Angel hissed him away from my side and cuddled into my arm pit.  It's her place. Gilbert was definitely miffed but accepted his place at the foot of the bed.
I've cut Angel's claws this morning.  Every time I turned over she'd dig in then leave, then Gilbert would sneak in, then Angel would return.  I'm tired this morning. But the hull is being cleaned today.  Then the boat will be ready to go out again. Must check the tide tables. With all the work on the boat and a friend being here it's been many months since the GIRI left dock.  Always an exciting time and exciting day.
But sleeping at anchor is even more enjoyable than sleeping tied to a dock. I don't know about sleeping when the boat is in motion on autopilot.   I must have faith that things won't go bump in the night.  I prefer being tethered to something.  I'm conservative that way, maybe even reactionary.
I got up this morning and listened to Carrie Underwood singing, "How Great Thou Art".  My friend, Dr. Bernie used to sing that to me while playing his banjo. I'm sure it was a favourite of my mom and aunt's.  I was raised on gospel.  Tears come to my eyes as I listened to the song.  I don't know how much is nostalgia, how much is form mom and aunt sally, how much the simple beauty of the song and the pure way that Carrie Underwood sings this classic.  A whole lot more is the desire to give 'my utmost for his highest'.
I think of Leonard Cohen's song, I want a new name, this one is covered up in shame.  So then I listened to Elvis Presley doing How Great Thou Art and then Christine Aguileria. I didn't find a gospel song of hers on you tube.  It's just that I loved her with Cher in Burlesque.  It was fun to surf the internet. So much of my time is so regimented. I rarely just kick back and break program.  Next I hit Lady Gaga and finally Britney Spears.  I thought I was back in high school after that.  I remembered the girls in the hall and all the competition among them and us guys being dazzled by their carrying on.
That's what came to mind watching Aguileria, Gaga, and Spears. They're all so talented and their videos such works of contemporary art.  But I went back to Underwood and listened to Jesus, take the wheel.  That had my mind sliding off on the Road Less Travelled, remembering the girls my parents liked from our church and how I'd taken a different track.  Most days I think "different' rather than better or worse. I think that what was, was the best path with what was possible at the time.  I imagine God redeeming life constantly.
So many times in life there are these 'crossroads'. That sign was in the Britney Spears video.  There are always choices and yet what of destiny.  Lady Gaga sings "Im born that way".  The philosophical questions of the ages coming through girl music.  Wonder what Neitche and Goethe would have looked like in bikinis or in their case shirtless in boxers.  It's not the Beatles or Steppenwolf or Paul Simon or Gordon Lightfoot, the Guess Who or Leonard Cohen.  It's not Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon or Joan Baez either. I listened to the Tripods from Australia recently too, comedy, thanks to the nephews.  It's been a while since I bought a Steve Matthews Band or John Mayor record enjoying the music as contemporary culture. The last cd I bought was Johnny Reed.
I rarely listen to music if I'm not driving. In the truck it's FM, AM or CD. Mostly I'm listening to Third Day driving down the freeway on my Harley electriglide doing 70 mph.  I find motorcycles and Christian spiritual music go together with prayer. In the truck I've got Mercy Me playing this week and ?Neededthings.  House of James is a favourite stop in Abbotsford to stock up on Christian CD's on road trips.  I like to be reminded of the 'higher things'.
I want to know God. I want God to be the 'polestar' of my life.  I figure with God at the helm or God at the wheel the journey can only be the best possible life worth living.  I want to allign my own life with the highest possible life available of all the choices.  I want to be with God and follow in his footsteps.  I want to live to the fullest.  As St. Paul said, I"d like to pray unceasingly.  I meditate on the sacred wonder of life.
How Great Thou Art touched a chord on that journey. the other songs were so much fun too.  Makes me want to get out my own guitar and write songs of love and Jesus singing, playing to the Lord of All Creation.
Best I shower and get ready for the day.  God inspired the maker of indoor plumbing.  He is surely a saint in heaven.  The guy who found this coffee and the girl who made it are surely saints as well. I think my dream was of the afterlife.  Jesus said in his father's world there were many mansions and that he'd go ahead and prepare one for his disciples.  C.S. Lewis', Great Divorce ,the play about the afterlife put on this year by Pacific Theater, showed the choices we have.  I'd like to walk upright.  Despite enjoying my furry friends who disrupted my sleep something terrible I'd prefer to evolve than devolve.  There's this idea of a homo spiritus that can follow homo sapiens. I'd like to take that journey.  Today I pray that I follow the high road.