The Best Travel Writing 2011 - James O'Reilly [136]
Amanda Summer Slavin is an archaeologist and writer. For the past 25 years she has returned to the Greek island of Ithaka, where she started searching for the palace of Odysseus in 1984 with a team from Washington University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Islands magazine and other publications. Even though she has traced the odyssey of history’s most famous male adventurer, she enjoys stories about women who have found transformation through travel.
CAMERON MCPHERSON SMITH
Eternity
In the beginning was the word.
I LIE IN A BAMBOO CABIN ON THE PACIFIC EQUATOR, dumbfounded by the crash-upon-crash-upon-crash of breakers. I cannot see the swells approaching shore, but I sense their even rise—which have so often elevated and then lowered me—I sense their rise higher at the precisely appointed line and then they topple forward and come down with unbelievable sounds: the crashing of great swords; the faintest echo of colliding galaxies; the hiss of hurrying electrons; the sound of acres of sliding metal.
Some waves pound the sand like cannonballs, but these are just side-shows. The essence out there is in the rush, the slide; the billion-billion white noise of eternity; the sand-grinding of the ocean ashore. There is no code there, it seems, only particles in motion, but I fall into the sense that I know nothing at all.
The moment passes: Not true: I know something now, I know that these crashes and hisses are important. They preceded all humanity and they will succeed all humanity. I may never understand them, I think, but if I don’t listen for messages in there I am a fool.
The next day, five fathoms under the gray surface of the Pacific, as I glance at my air pressure gauge, I am halted by another sound: a low whistle that has twisted through miles of water, a low whistle blending into a short, uprising moan. Whale. I breathe the word through my mouthpiece and it roils up and away in silver bubbles. I deflate my vest to kneel on the sandy sea floor and I listen.
Another low whistle, whorled by current and salt and thermocline, but unmistakable. It trips my mind like a switch, putting me right back in the cabin. Whales, I think, dumbfounded, their sound preceded all humanity and will succeed all humanity and though it’s time to turn around and swim back in, you had damned well better commit their sounds to memory.
But back in the cabin I cannot reproduce the sounds in my mind. They have already been smashed away by fish-trucks, barking dogs, and the rumblings of the cat-food factory on the beach. It’s O.K., I think, I heard it. I can find recordings. And if I don’t, so what? I don’t have to hear that twice.
Cameron M. Smith is an explorer and writer based in Portland, Oregon, where he is a member of the writing group The Guttery. He has written about his expeditions for many books and magazines. An active scuba diver and paraglider pilot, he is slowly retiring from ice cap expeditions in order to explore the lower stratosphere in a specially-constructed balloon and capsule. You can follow his expedition and writing projects at www.cameronmsmith.com.
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Pico Iyer published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Pico Iyer
“The Way of the Mist” by Cameron McPherson Smith published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Cameron McPherson Smith.
“Fire and Water” by Erika Connor published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Erika Connor.
“One Day, Three Dead Men” by Marcia DeSanctis published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Marcia DeSanctis.
“How I Promised Anusha the Smile” by Kevin McCaughey published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Kevin McCaughey.
“Ain’t Ready for No Man” by Katherine Jamieson first appeared in the 2010 edition of poemmemoirstory, published by The University of Alabama, Birmingham. Published with permission