Sometimes simple spoken words can stick with the hearer for their whole life. When I was 16, I went on a 6-day sportfishing trip in the Sea of Cortez, the teeming, Pacific inlet between Baja California and mainland Mexico. The fishing boat, which looked like the one pictured above, left from the sleepy fishing village of San Felipe, which is about a 6 hour drive through the desert from Los Angeles. The boat was about 60 feet long, and there were 9 sets of small bunk beds (for 18 passengers) towards the rear. All passengers slept in the open air, free to gaze directly at the warm night sky full of flickering stars. My father having pumped me full of his fishing tales from the Sea of Cortez, I had waited to take the trip since I was a little boy, and it did not disappoint. I caught tuna, mahi mahi and yellowtail, swam in the middle of the ocean, saw sharks and whales circling our boat, and saw the famed flying mobulas (giant Manta Raes) leaping 20 feet out of the water. It was the experience of a lifetime.
But I also learned an important lesson about love on the Sea of Cortez, courtesy of the words from an aging, diabetic, somewhat bitter man. One hot, sunny day, I was sitting on the deck of the boat with my father’s good friend, Drew. Drew and I were sipping ice-cold Coca Cola and enjoying the soothing warmth of the Mexican sun when we both noticed a (white) couple sleeping on a bunk nearby. The mattresses were quite small. Each mattress was roughly 6 feet long by 3 feet wide. Instead of sleeping–like most couples–one on the top bunk, the other on the bottom bunk–in the name of closeness, this couple had chosen to sleep in the same small pallet. Their bodies intertwined like rope as they clung closely together so that both could fit on the mattress, and I recall being surprised at how calmly they slept together in such a little space. Drew, who had been through a bitter divorce some years back, pointed to the couple and said to me, “Son, if you ever find a black woman that will do that, you marry her.” So I did.
Filed under: Relationships
