On Friday, September 27, 2002, at 10:42:00 PM PST, James W. Durkin wrote: Matt: >> That might depend on whether you found highly visible scratches in >> your gelcoat to be ugly or beautiful. James: > Man, I would hate to spend time with you in an art museum :-) Actually, I kind of lean towards appreciating the beauty of hull scratches. Every scratch has a story to tell. Unless it's a deep gouge or crack that threatens the hull's integrity, there's little reason to fret over a few "beauty marks". Just as wrinkles on the weathered face of an old fisherman tell of a life lived with sea, sun, and wind, so do the scratches on your kayak hull tell something of your adventures on the sea. Sometimes as I'm washing the hull of my boat, I'll run my finger along a particularly expressive scratch, remembering a fine and lovely moment spent on the water. Or the small areas both inside and out that are worn down a little from so may entries and exits, so many landings on magical beaches. Why should I be so anxious to erase these happy visual and tactile reminders of time so well spent in this life? My 'cello, crafted in 1860, is very well maintained...yet with great care taken to not ever erase the harmless evidence of several generations of music making. When I pass it along to the next generation, there will be subtle physical evidence of my own life spent with it. Just as I can feel the generations of musicians who came before me as I play the instrument, and as I run my fingers along its lovely lines, so will a bit of me be passed along, through this instrument, to the next generation. But I digress... A boat, like a fine musical instrument, expresses her beauty in many ways...through the lives she touches (and who's lives touch her), and the places she's been. Each time you "repair" a scratch on your boat, you erase a little evidence of your own journey. Do you really want to do that just now? When somebody gazes upon the lovely scratches on your boat's hull, perhaps their daydreams of the places you've been will launch their own dreams of where they might someday go. :-) -- Melissa *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Sep 28 2002 - 01:51:54 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:59 PDT