Fallen out of time

By Marilena Oltmanns

Tirelessly, full of determination, and with a hint of stubbornness, the ship cleaved its way through the sea. It hadn’t seen land for days and now, in the middle of nowhere, it was hard to believe that anything but ocean existed. As the ship diligently fulfilled its duties, station by station, day and night, it had almost forgotten where it came from and where it was heading. And why shouldn’t it? In the vastness of space, it was easy to lose perspective.

Its overarching mission, however big and important it may have been, faded away, like land disappearing behind the fog. The world’s problems and crises, uncertainties, and all the questions without answers, became tiny compared to the everyday struggles with the elements, making it easy to create a new meaning, safe, and far away from a world that was about to capsize and in which fossil fuel consuming ships had no future.

Thus, the ship moved on, faithfully, from station to station, clinging to a reality on the narrow line between the water and the sky. If the world went down in this very moment, the ship would not notice. For a split second, it would startle. Like a sleeping cat surprised by a sudden noise would it wake up, before drifting into another dream on another sea, in another world, as a new time had begun.

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