This is just another storm, trending keywords this morning: snow, snowing, hate. The first two I understand since it's been snowing since noon, hours off the prediction, but nobody's perfect. The third word baffled me...hate...just two days after Christmas, close to Kwanzaa, far from Ramadan, after Hanukkah. Holy Days.
For such a title, I had intended to write a cryptic, short story about three characters, based loosely on my life, who are stuck somewhere, in circumstances beyond their control, and their only hope is a boat of white bone. In fact, they name the boat Hope Floats after a clumsy movie because they love to watch movies. Double and triple headers, Netflix, on-demand, DVDs, every genre, sometimes late into the night, stopping only for tea and snacks or erudite discussions, replay a scene or adjust the volume, add or subtract sub-titles. The basic theme would be family.
For such a title, I considered a prose poem or a cluster of haiku, but the challenge of an empty white page with no lines was far too enticing in a non-verbal way, and a picture emerged, much like a photograph slowly developing in a dark red light room. Sketching in my mind with conte crayon the bleakness and love, the huddle of three, the boat their salvation, the emptiness of white surrounding them that held nothing and everything.
What once was four, still is, but each to each, in our own way, and together, we must rename the boat of white bone that has carried us, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.
Please note: I was unaware that in choosing this particular nodeshell to fill, that it once contained "an iconic writeup", the user fled, and "some old-timers will resent this 'usurpation' and most will hold whatever is posted here to an absurdly high standard..." Another kind reader also informed me that, "Many people will make unfair comparisons with that which lived here before."
MY SUGGESTION IS IF THERE ARE NODESHELLS THAT ARE SACRED, FOR WHATEVER REASON, PUT THEM INTO A CATEGORY TITLED, Don't even try to fill this nodeshell.