Ah, day three of tutoring, and in all three days, I’ve only had one student. My coworker, who tutors math, has had more students than I’ve been able to count. This is to be expected. When you take a math class, you are immersed right in the class, but when you take an English class; you might not have a writing assignment or a paper for weeks. I’m not complaining, the hum of voices in the center makes things feel more normal, and the lack of English students allows me to catch up on my reading.
Today’s novel is The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway. Ah, Earnest! One of the easiest writers to understand, yet even in his simplicity, his writing is multifaceted. If you’ve never read The Old Man and the Sea, it’s about, well….an old man, and his life as a fisherman…at the sea. I haven’t quite finished it, but so far, he has hooked a large fish and is being dragged along in his boat, hoping that the fish will tire out and give up so that he can reel it in. The fish has great stamina and continues to swim all through the day and into the night, taking the nameless old man with him for a ride. Even though the old man has no control of his destination on the ride, he remains calm, and always has a plan for each little obstacle that occurs.
He also manages to keep himself busy. Even out in the open sea, the old man (or rather, Hemingway) observes, ponders, and discusses to himself all of the life that he sees around him. He wonders why the dolphins appear to be purple-spotted when they really are golden, and he talks to the birds when they land on his skiff. The man is elderly, penniless, and has not caught a fish in over eighty days. The boy who had become like a son to him has been forced to work for a new fishing boat, and his small hut is sparingly adorned with reminders of his deceased wife. He has next to nothing, yet, his is happy. Out of everything I have observed in the novel so far, contentment in one’s situation stands out the most.
This theme seems to be occurring and reappearing in my life as of late. It is so important to take every day captive and find the little, pleasant things in it, even if it is as simple as observing the colors of a dolphin under water. For me, it has been the visit from a friend, a kind work spoken by a coworker, the knowledge that there is always someone out there who loves me, the single, beautiful pearl strung on my necklace, and the privilege to be doing something that I love.
With this in mind, I went for a walk last night. It was chilly for a June evening, and I was glad for the sweater around my shoulders. The sun was setting, and in the dim twilight I could feel the magic of the evening slipping out among the shadows. By the woods, I stopped, and reached out my hand for a firefly dancing amid the trees. Sometimes the fireflies are hard to spot, because without their lights, they blend into the dimness of the evening, and become one with the shadows. But then! They ignite their individual lights, and for a small window of time, I swiftly reach out my hand and grab the small creature. It remained in my palm for a moment, crawling over my fingers, and flashing its little light one more time before using my finger tip as a take-off pad. A car went by, and I realized that even though the people within the car were getting faster to their destination than I was to mine, they could not see the fireflies like I could. They would not get to witness the magic of the twilight, or capture that one small moment of the day.
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