“The trouble with education is that we always read everything when we are too young to know what it means. And the trouble with life is that we're always too busy to reread it later.”
- Margaret Ayer Barnes
Have you read Moby Dick? Were you made to read it back in school? Have you read it as an adult? It tends to intimidate people, its length and complexity. I'm positive I was never assigned it for any class. Even if I had been, I would have given it the laziest effort possible, I know, such was my nature. I started getting serious about reading in my 30s, but to date I still haven't taken it on. The other day I came across its opening paragraph in a publication. I had to shake my head. I thought, if this is the kind of writing that the rest of the book contains, I'm in. What a great opener! So, for 2026, I'm reading Moby Dick. I'll let you know how it goes. Care to join me?
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago ------ never mind how long precisely ----- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off ----- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
Haven't we all, at some point in life, felt the need to metaphorically get to sea as soon as we can?
Lots more birthdays in music:
Mary J. Blige (1971): Queen of Hip Hop Soul. You may not be a hip hop soul enthusiasts, but check her out below when she teams up with U2 for a version of One. Pipes!
Vicki Peterson (1958): Vicki Peterson/The Bangles - Girls with guitars!
Robert Earl Keen (1956): Texas Singer/Songwriter. He's a favorite of mine. His cover of James McMurtry's Levelland is a beaut. It's a song about a young man's desire to get away from the place he was raised — to get to sea as soon as he can.