Take Heart, Sailor; Raise the Lantern Higher

The Helm

It’s hard to believe Fightin’ Poseidon launched in January 2024 and now this ship has been sailing for almost 2 years. This voyage is a passion project and I don’t take it lightly that any one of you reading would care enough to stick around through the routes I’ve taken us through.

I’ve spoken many times to friends in person about how the mark of a good relationship is knowing and being known. Some of you have taken that to heart and reached out to me about how a particular issue I’ve dispatched had found you at just the right moment. That kind of thing encourages me to go on.

What I really hope these writings do for you is to give you courage to face whatever you’re facing, no matter how grim or dark, light or hopeful, and live in a way with those around you to be known to them and maybe give them the freedom and trust to make themselves known to you. In a way, Fightin’ Poseidon is my small effort to make an impact in this world, to raise a defiant fist at the darkness and be a portend of the day when the Light dispels every final shadow.

It’s no surprise to say I see the world through a highly conceptual and metaphorical lens. In a way that lens is experientially kaleidoscopic, but not in the drug-induced machine elf way. It’s like I see connections and hyperlinks of meaning everywhere. There are symbols in every nook and cranny and glance and conversation, which has sometimes worked against me in instances where I took something to heart I probably shouldn’t have.

For whatever reason, I’ve found the metaphor of salty seafaring and nautical myth helpful in making sense of life and the journey through it. There’s only so many days I’ve been allotted in this world, and one day there will be an empty space where I once stood. The masses of the world will glance warily at that vacuum as they try to ignore its impending doom. However, I see it as impending hope. One day, the sighings and sorrows brought on by the night will disperse in the light of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. He is not a metaphor. He is, as Lewis and Tolkien discussed, is the one true myth.

Which brings me to the Clash of Tides, because as hopeful as the Lord’s people should be, encouragement isn’t always how they live outwardly or with one another.