Topical Guide 40

Mark Dorset

Life, Metaphors and Similes for

It has often seemed to us that life, in several respects at any rate, is much like a river.

Susanna and Elizabeth Christensen, Boating on the Bolotomy

     Porky poked me on the shoulder and asked, “It’s a lot like life, isn’t it? A bus ride, that is.” . . .
     “It seems to me,” I put forth, “that life is more like clam chowder.” . . .
     “What about the grains of sand that collect at the bottom of the bowl?” . . .
     “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that,” admitted Porky.
     “Those may be the dark, gritty bits at the bottom of any life that one would really rather forget,” I suggested. “Any dark, gritty bits at the bottom of your life, Porky?”
     “Well—”

Little Follies, “Life on the Bolotomy”

Life—is rather like a tin of sardines—we’re all of us looking for the key.

Beyond the Fringe, “Take a Pew”

Arcadia, Eden

     In its early stretches, the Bolotomy is narrow and shallow, barely a stream, but at one point, suddenly and surprisingly, the river broadens and deepens, and for a short stretch it is an idyllic swimming spot. When I was a boy, I often rode my bicycle to this spot from my parents’ house. There the water was pellucid and cold, the bottom was covered with small rounded stones, and the bank on one side was flat and grassy. This spot was supposed to be a secret. I was taught its location by a neighbor, an older boy who later broke my foot for me by jumping on it. To reach the swimming spot, one rode or walked along a well-used trail to a certain place where the sides of the trail seemed to be closed by impenetrable bushes; then one stopped as if to tie a shoe, looked over one’s shoulder and, if no one was in sight, parted one pair of bushes carefully to open the way to another trail, a narrow, damp one that led to the secret spot.

Little Follies, “Life on the Bolotomy”

This could be that idyllic swimming spot on the Bolotomy River, in Babbington, though in fact it is a shallow pool in the Bronx River, within the Rock Garden at the New York Botanical Garden.

     And now, as I write this, some time after youth, I’m on an island in Bolotomy Bay, surrounded by the river’s water, though by the time it reaches this island the river water is no longer part of the river. From where I work, I can look back across the bay and a little way up the Bolotomy, back toward my beginnings.

Little Follies, “Life on the Bolotomy”

This could be the view from Small’s Island looking back across Bolotomy Bay toward Babbington, though in fact it is the view from Gerard Point in East Hampton, New York, looking across Accabonac Harbor toward Springs.

[more to come on Thursday, July 8, 2021]

Have you missed an episode or two or several? 
You can catch up by visiting the archive.
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” the first two novellas in Little Follies.

The serialization of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy is supported by its readers. I sometimes earn affiliate fees when you click through the affiliate links in a post. EK

www.erickraft.com

www.babbingtonpress.com