White Whales

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."" - From Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle - and is a variation of a line from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, Maud Muller.

This is essentially what I see White Whales to be. Obviously I've purloined the term from Herman Melville's well-known and oft-quoted novel Moby Dick. White Whales are the things in our lives that bother us, even from afar; sometimes it's a distant flicker - sometimes its a feeling akin to a paper-cut to the eyelid. They could be missed opportunities, or our fears pursuing us, or people who've hurt us, or regretful actions we have made. In our moments of despair we look out to the ocean and think of our white whales; the ticking of our crocodile's clock; the Iago to our Othello; the Monster to our Frankenstein.

But as we see in Moby Dick, revenge and obsession is not the answer. We've got to let our white whales go; otherwise we too may be lynched and drowned by our own harpoon - sucked into the dark azure abyss for ever-after.

Save hate's spit.

After all, "living well is the best revenge". (Thanks George)

Call Me Ethan..