My mother emailed this to me.

"The ship was well stocked with meat and drink and we sailed north with scarcely a care for many a month. When the wind picked up it was only a few of us who had any sense of foreboding. The first mate told the captain that he didn’t like the sharp whip in the breeze, but the captain was insulted by his impertinence and replaced him with an obedient counselor. When the sky grew gray, the second mate renewed the plaint but the captain took offense at his lack of deference and replaced him with a minion who pointed to the silver lining of the clouds. When the waves grew high and we saw icebergs nigh, a few of us went to the captain and expressed the burden of our misgivings. The captain ordered full ahead an threw us in the brig. Later that night we heard the awful sound of the splintering hull. O Captain, my Captain! We called. But the captain, by now in a well-appointed lifeboat that had miraculously appeared, rowed nimbly toward the horizon, whilst reproaching us for failing to pray hard enough. And that is how I and my poor shipmates were Left Behind to drown."


Nearer, My God to Thee
Patricia J. Williams
The Nation Nov. 7, 2005